Randy’s Blog

About a month ago I read the article "Don't be a Sval (or a Bard)" on The Arctic Journal. It's about a new website which released a series of 10 animated videos educating tourists about the rules and regulations in Svalbard. The videos use stop-motion animation to depict two trolls, named Sval and Bard, who visit the island and have all sorts of misadventures as they manage to break every rule.

I watched the videos as they were released every few days over the past month. The last one was posted on Monday. They're pretty good. And they're short, only 2 or 3 minutes each. These were my favorite:

• Episode 4: "It is prohibited to lure, pursue or otherwise seek out polar bears"
• Episode 8: "For the sake of the environment and yourself, we recommend organized tour arrangements"
  

You can find all the episodes here.

I finished reading North to the Night by Alvah Simon, which I mentioned a few posts ago. With his boat trapped in the ice, the author spent a beautiful and terrifying winter alone in the Arctic. He wasn't completely alone, though: he had a cat to keep him company. At one point during the long and lonely polar night, he penned this poem about his cat, named Halifax:

Halifax, my cat, was furry and fat.

Oh, a finer companion could not be.

I was trapped in the Arctic,

My life was so stark it

Had no other warm company.

And so side by side,

the dark months we did bide,

Huddled as bleak blizzards blew.

And when the food ran out,

At eight pounds thereabout,

she made a fine and filling meat stew.

Ha! The ending is pretty good, but overall I still like Data's poem better. Don't worry, though, he didn't really eat the cat.

The cat, in fact, saved him from being eaten by a polar bear on numerous occasions. Whenever he wanted to leave his boat, Halifax "would sit on the top companionway step for up to a half hour just listening. She would turn her little head steadily like a radar interpreting signals too subtle for my muted human senses. If she returned to the bottom of the sleeping bag, then so would I. The next day I would find signs of the bear's ambush site next to the boat."

I spent a few minutes searching the web for the latest news on the author. I learned that in 2009, nearly 15 years after the Arctic adventure, Halifax the cat passed away. The author wrote a touching good-bye article here.

The book was fascinating. I recommend it.

To stay on top of local weather, I read the WGN Weather blog. I like that it goes into more detail than most other local weather sites. It also has a daily Q&A post, where you can ask Tom Skilling a question (he's the most popular weather guy in Chicago-land). Right before I started writing my last post about Svalbard, I read this Q&A, which I thought was really interesting, and also very timely:

Question:

How does the North Pole temperature compare with the South Pole for comparable seasons?

Answer:

The South Pole is much colder than the North Pole. The average summer temperature at the North Pole is 32 degrees (above zero) and in the winter it’s minus 40 degrees; at the South Pole, it’s –18 degrees, summer, and –76 degrees, winter. There are two reasons for the difference. The first is the difference between land and sea. The North Pole is approximately in the middle of the Arctic Ocean, separated from the “warm” water of the ocean by a few feet of ice. Warmth from the water works through the ice and into the air. The South Pole is in Antarctica, about 800 miles from the nearest ocean. The second reason is elevation. The North Pole sits at sea level; the South Pole is at 9,301 feet. Temperatures decline about 4.5 degrees for every 1,000 feet of elevation increase.

Sometime during the winter of 2007-2008, I was looking at a map of the world when I saw something I had never noticed before. There's an inhabited island north of Norway. North of Norway! And people actually live there! 

I was astounded. The map said the island was called Svalbard, and it had a city called Longyearbyen. Eventually I went online to find out more about Svalbard (which is technically an archipelago), and what life there is like. 

I created an email alert on Google News so I'd be notified about happenings on the islands. I read every story that was emailed to me, and it turned out to be a lot. I even stumbled across stories about Svalbard in unrelated web surfing. It seemed to be everywhere. Eventually, winter turned to spring and I no longer felt like reading about Arctic life, so I deleted my email alert.

Recently, though, I started reading North to the Night, the memoir of a man who spent a year in the Arctic, alone, 100 miles from the nearest town. That got me looking at Arctic maps, where I once again encountered Svalbard, and that got me thinking about the email alert I had years ago. So I recreated that alert a few weeks ago, and started reading the latest news. 

Here are a few things I've learned, both in 2008 and in recent weeks:

Svalbard Global Seed Vault

Many countries have a seed bank where they keep backups of seeds in case of disaster. The Svalbard Global Seed Vault is where countries can store backups of their backups. It opened in 2008 and is designed to withstand natural and man-made disasters, including nuclear war. It's often referred to as the "doomsday" vault, but the owners don't like that term. The vault's goal is to preserve biodiversity, and they point out we've already lost much of that: a hundred years ago there were over 7,000 varieties of apples grown in the United States, now there are only 300.

Just recently, a delegation from Peru traveled to Svalbard to deposit potato seeds. They said that due to global warming, their farmers have had to plant crops higher and higher up the mountain. Eventually, they couldn't go any higher, so "there was but one place left to go: Svalbard."

School has hands-on learning

An article on school life says:

Nestled between an Arctic fjord and snowy mountains, the world’s northernmost school teaches students avalanche survival, how to fend off a hungry polar bear and how to skin a reindeer.

...

Siren Lindeth, a bubbly 18-year-old girl, was one of those who skinned and dismembered a reindeer in the wild last year.

“You have to puncture its throat, skin the animal and eviscerate it. Preferably barehanded. It’s so nice to plunge your freezing hands into the still warm intestines,” says Lindeth, a hunting fan who at the age of three was already taking part in hunts with her father, bundled up on a sled.

Astronomy Photograph of the Year

This picture of a total solar eclipse was taken in Svalbard, and it just won the award for 2015 Astronomy Photograph of the year. It won the overall category; there were lots of winners in other categories, which you can see here.

The Arctic Journal

A number of the Svalbard stories I've read were published by The Arctic Journal. It seems to be a really good source of news for the entire Arctic region. And fortunately, all of its stories are published in English!

Great Western Trail (late August)

About a month ago I got tired of riding on all the same trails near our house, so I decided to try a new trail that was further away. I picked the Great Western Trail, which is about an hour's drive away. It's 18-miles long, and runs from St. Charles to Sycamore. I'd read that it was flat and rural, which sounded good to me. It turns out it's actually "flat", where "flat" means a long, slow incline in one direction, and a long, slow decline in the other direction.

I wound up doing the incline first. I kept thinking it was surprisingly hard to pedal for a flat trail, and that I must be going ever so slightly uphill. After 9 miles in one direction, I was spent. So I turned around to head back, and it suddenly got much easier to pedal. So yep. I had been going uphill. When I first started the trail I briefly wondered if I could ride the entire 18-mile length, since it was flat. But I wasn't even close.

The first part of the trail is tree covered and was very lush and green. After a while, the trail opened up and ran along a highway which wasn't so picturesque, and was also quite noisy when cars whizzed by. There were a lot of people on the trail, too, especially at the beginning. One thing I didn't like was there were no good places to stop to rest. You just had to pull over to the side of the trail.

Overall it was a fairly disappointing trip. And it didn't help that I had to drive an hour to get home.

Prairie Trail (early September)

A week after the Great Western Trail, I went back to the Prairie Trail, which is the closest one to us, and the one I ride most often. I started just north of McHenry and rode to Wisconsin (about 16 miles, round trip). It turned out to be my most enjoyable ride of the year, by far! I suddenly had new-found appreciation for the trail:

• It only took 10 minutes to get there, instead of an hour. 
• It's a very wide trail, so there's plenty of room to pass (or be passed). 
• The topography is much gentler. There are a couple of false flats, but they're short! And there aren't any big hills.
• There are several convenient rest stops, which also have bathrooms. 
• It's not very crowded, and on this day there was almost no one else there.
• And it was an especially hot day, which I like.

It was so much fun. I enjoyed the heat, the exercise, and the scenery. It was so hot, that for the first time ever I ran out of water in my CamelBak! Thankfully I was close to the end when it happened.

Prairie Trail (late September)

Over the weekend I went back to the Prairie Trail and rode the same section of trail. It looked and felt more like fall this time, with cooler temps and falling leaves. But unfortunately this time was not as enjoyable as the previous one, because I'd let 3 weeks pass without getting on the bike. My legs got tired very quickly, and it was a struggle to keep going. On the way back I was passed by a number of riders, both young and old. But I eventually made it back.

And now my season total stands at 202 miles, which is a new personal record!

I've made it to season 6 of Star Trek: The Next Generation. Only one more season after this. Over the weekend we watched an episode called Schisms, which deals with members of the crew experiencing missing time. It was creepy and enjoyable. At the beginning, Lieutenant Commander Data (an android, for any non-Trekkies out there) reads some of his poetry to the crew. One of the poems is dedicated to his cat, and it is so excellent that I had to share. It's called "Ode to Spot", and is written in the iambic heptameter mode:

Felis catus is your taxonomic nomenclature,

An endothermic quadruped, carnivorous by nature;

Your visual, olfactory, and auditory senses

Contribute to your hunting skills and natural defenses.

I find myself intrigued by your subvocal oscillations,

A singular development of cat communications

That obviates your basic hedonistic predilection

For a rhythmic stroking of your fur to demonstrate affection.

A tail is quite essential for your acrobatic talents;

You would not be so agile if you lacked its counterbalance.

And when not being utilized to aid in locomotion,

It often serves to illustrate the state of your emotion.

O Spot, the complex levels of behavior you display

Connote a fairly well-developed cognitive array.

And though you are not sentient, Spot, and do not comprehend,

I nonetheless consider you a true and valued friend.

I went for a ride yesterday, which was one of the hottest days of the year. It felt like it, too. Hot and humid. I was surprised by how many people were on the trail, despite the weather. Technically, the pictures above were taken 3 weeks ago, when I rode the same section of the Prairie Trail. I didn't feel like stopping to take pictures of the scenery yesterday, I just wanted to keep riding.

Distance 17.3 miles

Riding Time: 1 hour, 40 minutes

Season Total: 150.5 miles (only 5 miles away from my all-time season high!)

One of my favorite authors growing up was John Bellairs, who wrote creepy gothic mystery books for children. The stories almost always involved the supernatural: evil wizards, magic spells, terrible curses, and long-forgotten tombs, crypts, and ancient magical artifacts. And also houses. There were often big, old houses in his books. Strange mansions with secret passageways, unusual weather vanes, creaky floors, and large fireplaces.

It turns out that some of those houses were inspired by his hometown. He grew up in Marshall, Michigan which has a large historic district of homes all built in the 1800s. Here's what he had to say:

"In my imagination, I repeatedly walk up and down the streets of the beautiful old Michigan town where I grew up. It is full of Victorian mansions and history, and it would work on the creative mind of any kid."

Last week, to celebrate my birthday, Wendy and I traveled to Marshall to see that house, along with all the other historic homes.

The Cronin House

It was fantastic, and did not disappoint. It is showing signs of deterioration, since no one currently lives there. But it is still a remarkable house. I went back to it each day of our trip to take more pictures. Here are just a few:

The Octagon House

This is another house featured in one of the books, this time in The Treasure of Alpheus Winterborn. It's currently being renovated.

Honolulu House

After John Bellairs died in 1991, his estate asked writer and long-time friend Brad Strickland to complete several of John's works in progress, and even to write his own books featuring Bellairs' characters. One of those books was The House Where Nobody Lived, which was based on the Honolulu house. This was the only house on our trip that we got to view from the inside. The house was built in 1860 by a man who spent several years in Hawaii, and wanted to build something to remind him of the islands. The interior of the house is filled with unbelievably intricate painting. It was quite a sight to see.

The Fountain

This isn't a house, but it's a unique feature of Marshall mentioned several times in Bellairs' books. There's a large roundabout on the main street with a fountain in the middle, surrounded by a circle of trees. At night, the fountain is lit up by colored lights. Each night of our trip we sat for a while at the fountain as darkness fell. On the first night, we could see the stars of the Summer Triangle (Vega, Deneb, and Altair) overhead, and a bit later, the full moon rose into view, which also happened to be a blue moon. The colored lights from the fountain, along with the stars and moon made for a great view.

The Historic District

The historic district is packed with unique houses and interesting architecture. There were far too many to take pictures of all of them. And I still managed to take a lot of pictures.

The Rest of the Trip

I could easily keep posting photos, but I'll stop here. During our trip, we also:

• Stayed 3 nights at the National House Inn, a bed and breakfast whose building was constructed in 1835. It was part of the Underground Railroad at one point; and it was also a house of ill repute at another point.
• Ate at the famous Schuler's restaurant, which has been in business at least since the 1920's. The food was delicious, and our waiter looked exactly like the actor Chris Pratt.
• Visited the American Museum of Magic, which is on the main street in Marshall. It was a bit of a disappointment; there wasn't much to it besides lots of authentic posters advertising famous magicians of old.
• Walked all over town, until our feet hurt, our legs were exhausted, and my phone was almost out of batteries from taking so many pictures.
• Visited the Binder Park Zoo in nearby Battle Creek. It too was a bit disappointing. There was a lot of walking and not a lot of animals. It didn't help that the zoo's tram broke down while we were there.
• Ate a delicious nut roll at Louie's Bakery, on the main street in Marshall. One of the guests at the bed and breakfast recommended this to us.
• Walked along a very nice riverwalk that overlooked the Kalamazoo River.
• Saw several black squirrels. I saw a few of these in Oklahoma a long time ago, but never any since.
• Enjoyed the breeze. It was hot and dry during our visit, but fortunately there was a strong breeze that helped keep us cool, and keep the mosquitoes at bay.

The trip was a lot of fun. I'm glad we went. And strangely enough, during our trip, there was an announcement online of a recently-discovered, never-before-published short story by John Bellairs. It's called The Gargoyle in the Dump, and it will be published in September as an ebook. It's very short, only 24 pages, and is apparently about 3 brothers having a very boring summer, until they discover a talking gargoyle in the town's dump. It sounds exactly like something John Bellairs would write. I'm looking forward to it!

Two things I forgot to mention about my new phone:

1.  I love the double-tap to wake feature. Instead of pressing the power button on the side to wake the phone up, you just double-tap anywhere on the screen. If the phone is awake, you can also double-tap the screen to make it go to sleep. That's really useful and cool. Other phones have had this feature for a while; this is the first time I've owned one with it.

2.  As luck would have it, the first picture I got to take with my new phone was of a skunk in our backyard:

We watched it for at least 20 minutes foraging around in the grass looking for food. Then it wandered into the front yard for a while. Eventually it went into the backyard and disappeared into the bushes.

Ours was a very brief encounter with a skunk compared to one of my coworkers. He discovered skunks were living under his front porch, so he hired a wildlife company to trap them. When it was all over, they had caught a mother skunk and 7 babies, 3 of which were extremely rare albino skunks. I never knew such a thing existed.

Phone

I got a new phone recently: an Alcatel Onetouch Idol 3. I'd had my old one for 3 years, and I kept telling myself it was fast enough for the things I used it for, so I didn't need a new one. But it was stuck on the KitKat version of Android, with no hope of getting new versions. I kept looking at Wendy's newer phone, which had the latest version of Android (Lollipop), and feeling envious of the new features she could use. And there were times when my phone ran so much slower than hers. So I caved and bought a new one.

I was quite pleased with my purchase. The top of the line phones these days cost $700, which is an astronomical price to pay for a phone, in my opinion. I kept looking for a solid mid-range phone, and that's what I found with the Idol 3. I was able to pre-order it for only $200, and it has Lollipop, and it is much, much faster than my old phone.

It's also much bigger, which has taken some adjustment. It's a 5.5-inch phone, compared to my old one which was 4.6-inch. It still fits in my pocket, but just barely. I usually take it out when I'm sitting down and set it on the desk/table/whatever's convenient. That means I'm more likely to forget it somewhere, but so far that hasn't happened. (Knock on wood)

Laptop

I also got a new laptop recently, but unlike the phone, I went top of the line. I've been using my old laptop for almost 5 years. The main reason I bought the old one was because it was cheap: it was a Black Friday deal I bought online from Best Buy. It was not all that fast, and the keyboard had an annoying row of buttons to launch default programs (web browser, email, calculator, etc), which meant I kept accidentally hitting those buttons when I meant to hit something else. Then I'd have to wait until the program launched, so I could kill it, and try again to hit the right button. It didn't happen that often, but it was very annoying when it did.

So this time around I decided not to skimp. After reading reviews from Consumer Reports, and talking to a coworker who just got a new laptop, I bought a Dell 17-inch Inspiron 7000 series. It's got an i7 processor, 16 GB of RAM, a 1 TB hard drive, and a dedicated graphics card. It also has a touch screen. So far I love the larger screen (my old laptop was a 15-inch), and I absolutely love that it has a backlit keyboard. No more squinting at the keyboard in the dark to make sure I'm hitting the right button. Very nice! And it's also much, much faster than my old laptop! 

This morning I finished all the setup: installing Linux, getting everything configured, and transferring over my data. I'm looking forward to developing software with this machine.

CamelBak

A few months ago I reached my 10-year anniversary at work. As a reward, I got to pick a gift from a (very) small catalog. I was fairly unimpressed with the selection. I had to look through it several times before I could find something I was even mildly interested in. Finally, I decided to get a 100-oz CamelBak. It's one of those backpacks with a water reservoir inside. There's a tube that extends out of the backpack and clips to a shoulder strap, so you can easily drink from the reservoir. The more I thought about it, the more I realized it was great choice, because I could use it on bike rides to take along far more water than would fit in a bottle. So even though I was briefly tempted by a soft-serve ice cream maker, I got the CamelBak, to encourage me to exercise rather than to eat ice cream.

I've taken the CamelBak on several bike rides now, and it's great. I drink much more water than I usually do when I just have a bottle, and it's easier to drink while riding. 100 ounces is a lot of water, but it's actually not that heavy. The only downside is that the backpack does make my back get much sweatier, but that's fairly minor (and sweating is part of the point of exercising).

When I'm done riding, I take the reservoir out of the backpack, wash it out, and store it in the freezer until the next ride. Several places, including the CamelBak website, recommend that as a way to prevent bacteria from growing.

So that was a pretty good gift after all. I hope to use it for many bike rides to come.