California Dreamin': First Few Hours

Well, I'm here. Beverly Hills. 

Tried calling for an Uber ride for the first time in my life, but it felt unnecessarily complicated to find the specific place where they would pick me up. Before long, I scrapped that and simply took a standard taxi instead. The taxi driver, as it turns out, was from Azerbaijan. We talked about his country, which he seemed to enjoy. I enjoyed listening to him talk about his country. We also talked about other countries and places to visit. At one point, he pointed out that we were passing Fox Studios, in Century City.

Shortly, we reached the Beverly Hills Marriot, the hotel I was staying at. I checked in, and had the option of either taking a room with a double bed, or waiting an hour or more for one with a king-sized bed. Not seeing it as much of an inconvenience, I opted for the room with the double, not wanting to do still more sitting around and waiting, being by this point tired and travel-weary. Plus, this room had a view of downtown Los Angeles in the distance, which sounded good to me. As it turns out, I also had a view (albeit distantly) of the famed Hollywood sign.

Good stuff. 

After going in my room and doing some unpacking - and also taking pictures of both downtown Los Angeles and the Hollywood sign - I decided to go out, maybe find someplace to eat. So I walked along what I believe was, if memory serves correctly, Beverly Avenue. It felt good to be out on these sunny California streets, taking in the atmosphere and seeing the sites. 

Below are some of the pictures which I took and thought worth sharing:

A view of the infamous Los Angeles traffic on the highway:

Fox Studios in Century City (seen from the taxi):

This was the view from the hotel room, On top, downtown Los Angeles. On the bottom more or less at center, and to the left of the wall (did not try to crop this picture, or anything) is the Hollywood sign.

Walking around in Beverly Hills:

One of the most fascinating aspects of visiting someplace which is quite different climatically from anywhere I have ever lived, are the different kinds of plants and vegetation. Thought it was worth taking a picture or two:

Book Review: The Cabinets of Barnaby Mayne by Elsa Hart

Last year, I read and then did a book review of my first Elsa Hart book.

Recently, I read my second book from her, having been quite impressed with the first one. Of course, there are similarities in the writing style, and even the stories. Both of them are murder mysteries which take place in the early 1700's, so there are bound to be similarities.

And yet, they each had a distinct feel to them. The setting for the one which I read last year was in Western China. And I really got a feeling almost of visiting China during that era, based on Hart's descriptions and writing style. Most of the events take place in a regional Chinese provincial court, which is hosting a major event. There are people from around the world set to attend. All of that made it very enjoyable to me.

By contrast, the setting in this book is London. The main setting in this book is the home of a wealthy collector of rare, mostly scientific artifacts by the name of Barnaby Maybe. although the characters do move around outside of the house. His collection is known to be second to none, and so many people from all over Europe show up when he is scheduled to give a tour of his collection.

Like with the first book that I read from here, Jade Dragon Mountain, Hart is able to bring the past to us and make it feel alive. Instead of rural western China, we are in London, when it still had a reputation as a dirty and foul-smelling city, as well as a dangerous one. And we also get the feeling that some within the intellectual community not only pride themselves on their knowledge and collections, but also inspire to a greater understanding of the world and how it works in an era still far more in the shadows of past superstitions than we tend to be in our modern world. 

Then, of course, there is a murder. And the mystery of the "who dunnit?" commences.

Now, I will not go into too much detail regarding the specifics of either the murder, or how Cecily Kay, the main character throughout this novel, ultimately manages to figure out who committed the murder, and why. 

However, I can say that this was a solid and enjoyable read. My second Elsa Hart book, but I intend to read other works by her in the future, and hopefully soon. Like with Jade Dragon Mountain, I really came to enjoy inhabiting her fictional world while reading this book. It took me away from my own life and own problems, at least for the short durations while reading this book.

Highly recommended. 

Side note: I realized when writing this that I had never quite gotten around to reviewing Jade Dragon Mountain. It came as a surprise, because up to this point, I had believed that there was a book review. But after reading it, I had wanted to get it for my mom as a Christmas gift, and wanted to wait until after that time to review the book. Glad that I did, because my mom had not yet read anything by Elsa Hart when I gave her the collection of three books by her. Unfortunately, though, I never did quite get around to actually writing, much less publishing, a book review of that fantastic book. This is something I intend to remedy soon, although at this point, it will simply have to wait until after the California trip. 

🌎 🌲 Earth Day Week: Pope Francis Feels Combating Climate Change is Christian Duty 🌲 🌎

  

Photo courtesy of DonkeyHotey Flickr Page: https://www.flickr.com/photos/donkeyhotey/6143809369

Creative Commons License: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/

The old button from the Environmental Club days which I just happened to find on Earth Day! It is a little beat up (particularly the ends of the ribbon), but no worse for the wear, I think. And it is one of the few items that I have left from those days, so it carries a lot of great memories for me! Nothing Changes Until You Do!

Here is a picture of a very similar logo, with the same message, that was on the t-shirt that I purchased from the BCC Environmental Club and, if memory serves me correctly, may even have helped to make. There were a few projects like that which club members, myself included, were regularly involved with. It has been so long, however, that I no longer recall specifically if I actually helped to make these or not, although I do believe so, since I remember seeing the process of the t-shirts being dyed. In any case, I loved this t-shirt, and have kept it ever since, even if I do not regularly wear it. Since it was part of my experience with the BCC Environmental Club days, as well as more generally having an environmental theme, it seemed appropriate to share it here. 

"Earth provides enough to satisfy every man's needs, but not every man's greed."

~Mahatma Gandhi

"Change is the law of life. And those who look only to the past or present are certain to miss the future."

  

~John F. Kennedy  

"The earth does not belong to man. Man belongs to the earth. All things are connected like the blood that unites one family. Man did not weave the web of life. He is merely a strand in it. Whatever he does to the web he does to himself."

- Native American Philosophy (most often attributed to Chief Seattle)

“Humankind has not woven the web of life. We are but one thread within it. Whatever we do to the web, we do to ourselves. All things are bound together. All things connect.”

~ Chief Si’ahl (Seattle) 

“Now polluters are looked upon as ordinary Joes just doing their jobs. In the future, they will be looked upon as swine”  

~ Kurt Vonnegut 

Why does it seem that, for many, being a good Christian means specifically ignoring what is best for our planet, and voting against what is best for it? How charitable and spiritual is that?

Well, that might finally be changing.

Pope Francis I, who seems like a very cool Pope so far and, frankly, a breath of fresh air, seems to take a different tact when it comes to the environment then a lot of other Christian leaders, who seem almost to view the Earth as the property of mankind and, thus, subject to whatever the hell the owners want to do with their parcel of land, no matter how potentially detrimental this may be to the health of the planet.

Pope Francis took a decidedly, refreshingly different approach some years ago:

“Creation is not a property, which we can rule over at will; or, even less, is the property of only a few: Creation is a gift, it is a wonderful gift that God has given us, so that we care for it and we use it for the benefit of all, always with great respect and gratitude.” 

Now, that does not sound like so many Christian leaders here in the United States, who almost seem to feel that doing anything to preserve the natural Earth is tantamount to Godless communism and evil.

Francis went further, even. He likened the destruction of the Earth - of God's Creation - as a sin! Here is some more of what he said on the subject:

“But when we exploit Creation we destroy the sign of God’s love for us, in destroying Creation we are saying to God: ‘I don’t like it! This is not good!’ ‘So what do you like?’ ‘I like myself!’ – Here, this is sin! Do you see?”

He referred to Christians as "custodians of Creation" who needed to have a healthy admiration and sense of wonder for the “beauty of nature and the grandeur of the cosmos”.

Finally, we are seeing and hearing something quite different from the general indifference with which too many religious leaders in the past have ignored the subject of environmental degradation.

Now, let's see if this has a widespread impact among the world's over 1 billion Catholics!

One way or another, however, I do want to say how refreshing this is! Pope Francis seems to me to truly be a man of the strongest faith, and one who does not overlook any aspect of that faith, and who does not leave his faith open to many (if any) contradictions.

Here is the link to this story:

Pope Francis Makes Biblical Case For Addressing Climate Change: ‘If We Destroy Creation, Creation Will Destroy Us’

http://thinkprogress.org/climate/2014/05/21/3440075/pope-francis-if-we-destroy-creation-creation-will-destroy-us/

Departing From Newark Airport

So despite the hassles and overall ordeal surrounding traveling, and specifically airports, my stay at Newark Liberty Airport was not all that bad. 

Luckily, I got there quite early, almost three hours before my flight was scheduled to take off. Plenty of time. So while it was annoying that my bag, once again, was pulled to the side, and then I waited for quite some time - probably around twenty minutes or so - before the guy even got to my bag, I at least did not feel the stress of the pull of time. It was annoying that he threw out my two tubes of toothpaste, both brand new and still in the box. But, you just shrug and move on with your life, don't you? What else can you do?

So I went to the gate, and then began the process of waiting. There was one moment, however, when I was tempted to do something different. An announcement came on that this flight was overbooked, and if anyone was willing to give their ticket up, they could get $1000 in cash and, on top of that, travel vouchers. A seat on a flight to LAX scheduled for 4:35 that afternoon would be guaranteed. It seemed that there was a murmur about how good of a deal this was, with some people smiling and wishing that they could do it.  

This hardly escaped me, as well. I grew nervous, thinking about whether I should do it or not. The thing of it was, I just kept imagining if that flight somehow got pushed back or delayed. After all, this was not a vacation trip, but a work-related trip. There were people whom I would have to report to upon arriving. Also, I guessed that the travel vouchers would go onto te credit card which had been used for the purchase of the original tickets, and that was the corporate card at work. So it was not guaranteed that I would even be able to use these. Then, one of the guys who had smiled and gotten up to capitalize on this deal himself ended up not doing it. It was at this point that I wondered if, perhaps, we had misheard or misunderstood, and instead of $1000 and travel vouchers, it was for $1000 in travel vouchers.

Big difference.

And so I killed off the temptation, and sat waiting for the original flight. Did a bit of reading, and then visited the facilities just before the flight, which was scheduled for 11:30, with the arrival at LAX expected at 2:30 later that afternoon. 

Ultimately, I boarded. It was a difficult flight. It sometimes felt like this was the young, screaming child section. The couple behind me had not one, but two young children, including one at least one boy. He kept kicking my seat. Somehow, this did not enhance my flight experience, although I remained patient. After all, as a parent, I knew the struggles of trying to do things like this with such a young child. Still, I occasionally turned in hopes that one of the parents might get the message and urge the boy to stop kicking, but this had mixed success, at best. Also, I had a middle seat, and the woman with the window seat immediately closed the window, depriving me of one of the real pleasures of flying. Personally, even after having taken dozens of flights in my life, I just never have tired of staring out the windows and admiring the heavenly view of the top of the clouds. Not this time, apparently. 

Nevertheless, I was excited. After all, this was only the third time that I would be traveling to California. And while this was for work more than anything else, I was scheduled to get at least one day off. Plus, it felt like there would be a good chance to see some other things worth seeing while out there. So there was an enthusiasm and sense of gratitude which helped to get me past any inconveniences or relatively minor annoyances endured during the flight. It lasted maybe about six hours, and we arrived at LAX on time.

More on the actual trip a bit later. 

🌎 🌲 Earth Day Week: More Quotes From Great Native American Thinkers 🌲 🌎

   

Photo courtesy of DonkeyHotey Flickr Page: https://www.flickr.com/photos/donkeyhotey/6143809369

Creative Commons License: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/

The old button from the Environmental Club days which I just happened to find on Earth Day! It is a little beat up (particularly the ends of the ribbon), but no worse for the wear, I think. And it is one of the few items that I have left from those days, so it carries a lot of great memories for me! Nothing Changes Until You Do!

Here is a picture of a very similar logo, with the same message, that was on the t-shirt that I purchased from the BCC Environmental Club and, if memory serves me correctly, may even have helped to make. There were a few projects like that which club members, myself included, were regularly involved with. It has been so long, however, that I no longer recall specifically if I actually helped to make these or not, although I do believe so, since I remember seeing the process of the t-shirts being dyed. In any case, I loved this t-shirt, and have kept it ever since, even if I do not regularly wear it. Since it was part of my experience with the BCC Environmental Club days, as well as more generally having an environmental theme, it seemed appropriate to share it here. 

"Earth provides enough to satisfy every man's needs, but not every man's greed."

~Mahatma Gandhi

"Change is the law of life. And those who look only to the past or present are certain to miss the future."

  

~John F. Kennedy  

"The earth does not belong to man. Man belongs to the earth. All things are connected like the blood that unites one family. Man did not weave the web of life. He is merely a strand in it. Whatever he does to the web he does to himself."

- Native American Philosophy (most often attributed to Chief Seattle)

“Humankind has not woven the web of life. We are but one thread within it. Whatever we do to the web, we do to ourselves. All things are bound together. All things connect.”

~ Chief Si’ahl (Seattle) 

“Now polluters are looked upon as ordinary Joes just doing their jobs. In the future, they will be looked upon as swine”  

~ Kurt Vonnegut

Here are some other sites with powerful quotes from Native Americans.

In the spirit of Earth Day, which is technically tomorrow, but which I will be honoring on "The Charbor Chronicles" all week, and which I believe we should recognize and celebrate every single day, here are more sites that offer great quotes and, hopefully, very different perspectives on life and our world than what we find available on television or newspapers. These are very different truths indeed, and we need to expose ourselves to these, and try to understand them:

10 Quotes From a Oglala Lakota Chief That Will Make You Question Everything About Our Society By Wisdom Pills / wisdompills.com:

http://www.filmsforaction.org/articles/10-quotes-from-a-oglala-lakota-chief-that-will-make-you-question-everything-about-our-society/


Luther Standing Bear Ota K’Te (Plenty Kill)  Oglala Lakota (1868-1939)

http://nativewarriors.net/chief-luther-standing-bear-photo-gallery-and-quotes.ht

Trump Described As a ‘Bit of a Sleazy Guy’

Don't want to get too much into politics right now. While I am not exactly on vacation, despite being on a trip, I nevertheless hope to take a little bit of a break from the normal routine while out here.

And that includes politics. 

Still, it seemed worth sharing this video, mostly without commentary from me.

All I will say is that I am glad to hear that I am not the only one suffering from Trump fatigue. Just really tired of hearing about this guy, frankly.

Anyway, here is the video:

‘Bit of a sleazy guy’: Political analyst says people are ‘worn down’ by all of Trump’s legal woes

Early Morning Smoggy Sunrise Over Los Angeles

This was the sun rising over Los Angeles  (well, sort of) early this morning. 

Took this just after 6am until about 6:25 PST.