White Forest

I worry about the birds out in the forest. What do they do? How do they stay warm? Poor little birds.

All the poor little creatures out in the snow.

Born Again

The longest night has passed, and our days grow longer. Slowly, to be sure, and months more of crushing Winter just now officially begins. But be of good cheer, we are reborn! And this is the true reason for the season.

Protip: The BNP is racist as hell.

Merry X-Mas!

Of Interest Perhaps Only To Me

Click for big! My discovery, simple minded as it is, was that the Sun moves all over the sky.

Having lived in cities for many years, I never saw the path of the Sun through the seasons. But now, high up in New Gondolin, I see the Sun go from Winter left to Summer Right, booking across the sky. Of course it is we - The Earth - that is moving, not the Sun, but hard to deny the illusion.

So you see above half my year. That is the Winter Sun, 2011. The dates above the other mountains cover the sunsets to come/gone. Spring/Fall is a magical spot there in the hollow of the closest mountain.

 Seeing the rhythms of our planet play out every night, every year, is awesome. Man.

Where's your Global Warming now?

Snow Demon

Of course, as soon as it gets cold or snows in the Winter, your witty Wingnut will mockingly ask "What happened to Global Warming"? I tell them that Snow Demon is unpredictable and easily offended. And boy has he been offended this Winter!

Portland ME after 30 plus inches in early February.

Skiing to work! Up here in Gondolin it started snowing in early December and hasn't really stopped. Producing scenes like:

Redshirt photos. So yeah, funny story - Global Warming can cause all kinds of different weather conditions, including increased snowfall amounts. Warming temperatures worldwide will cause more extreme variations of weather in different locales, but yes, there could be far more snow in certain areas because of GW. Good luck trying to explain this to Mr. Wingnut. But then, maybe I will. Tomorrow.

Until then, pray with me to the Snow Demon to accept our offerings and mercifully stop sending snow. My back beseeches you!

I hope the Russians love walruses too

Fashion Walrus is ready for his closeup.

Ready for some sun! Your Russian Navy at work in the Arctic. And in the Antarctic?

Bust o' Lenin, chilling out. Never forget, comrades:

For men and walruses.

Bonus question: Any common derivation of Rus (tribe of, founders of Russia) and wal-rus? They're both from the cold part of the world. What if they're like related or something? Weird!

After the Fall (Lunch Break)

Click for huge - Mt. Rainier in the sunset, a shadow stretching across the heavens. I can relate!

Satan, man.

Not a shop. African weirdness, rather.

Also not a shop, but rather a well timed cloud. Dig it.

Now's not the time for fear

What a delightful photoshop! And such a delectable pun! Bane.

Bain Capital is where Mitt made the majority of his bones, leveraging troubled companies to squeeze every sweet dollar out of them before shutting them down or re-organizing them as something much worse than before. Vampire capitalism, preying on the old and weak.

Bane: "A person or thing that ruins or spoils.". Bain has become one of Mitt's banes, and to think it was supposed to be one of his notable achievements! But he has quite a few banes these days, indeed, his entire resume is a bane he pretends to shed whenever possible, but how can one rid one's self of the very things one touts as reason to be the most powerful man in the world? Mitt can't talk up Bain, can't talk up his Governorship of MA, can't talk up his high standing in the Mormon Church, and no longer can talk up his "saving" of the Winter Olympics (cuz it was saved with sweet, sweet free taxpayer money). It's incredible, really. Flabbergasting that this man is running for President! I thank FSM for such a gift.

And finally, Bane: Villain in the latest Batman movie. An intriguing villain. I liked the movie, but wasn't crazy about it. It also seems to have exited pop consciousness remarkably fast, which is never good these days. I really dug the jacket above, and wait to see if an internet prediction comes true: That style jacket will be "a thing" this winter. I doubt it, but we shall see if pop consciousness has forgotten Bane, or not.

A political pop consciousness thing: Dogs against Romney. If you hadn't heard, one day way back when Mitt regaled a reporter in Boston with a homespun, down to salt of the earth tale of the family vacation in the old roadster, driving to Canada. He kept his dog, Seamus, in a cage tied to the roof for the trip, even after he got sick and shit everywhere - never fear! Mitt hosed it all away and resumed the trip, Seamus still roof-bound. Egads, right? Funniest thing is Mitt told this tale as if it were a heartwarming anecdote, a sure fire way to connect to "The Common Man". Oh, Mitt!  Read all about it here.

Oh Mitt, you cad! Have you heard about all the funny pranks young Mitt used to pull? Pretending to be a State Trooper? Shaving a hippy? Protesting FOR the Vietnam War, then heading to France on a Mormon mission (the phrase you're looking for is "Greg Marmalard)? As you can see, Mitt's got character in spades! Character plus experience equals the best President Amercia can buy!

LOL. What's been even more hilarious is how awful Mitt's campaign has been. Chock a'block with stupid mistakes - like misspelling "America" in the campaign app. I mean, c'mon! It's Palinesque! And there's been dozens of mistakes like this, and worse.

It's a 'shop, actually, but that doesn't matter anymore. "The Stench" has become the caricature, because Mitt Romney IS a living caricature.

Momjeans = common touch! LOL.

Man of the people indeed.

I almost feel sorry for Mitt, because in a sane world he'd be a decent candidate - he's certainly got the hair for it. But this is not a sane world, not the Repuglican side of it anyways, and thus Mitt is forced to be insane (if he's not truly - who knows with a robot?), and by being insane, and no good at it, he's guaranteed to lose. Catch 22, Willard! You're caught in a trap and there's no way out.

Thank FSM again! While I think Barack Obama has done a FANTASTIC job in his first term, I grant that Fox Nation has done an equally good job in laying the FUDD so thick that many think he's done poorly. And so if there were a solid Repuglican candidate this year, they would have had a good chance of unseating President Obama. Alas and bless Shesah, Mitt is the candidate instead, and he's terrible, and yet still the best of that rotted bunch. Which tells you all you need to know about the state of the Repuglican Party today: Rotten.

Happy Fall (Winter is Coming)

He eats rock and shits coal!

Why have people in a tank when the tank can run itself just fine without people? Also, it's got an attitude.

"To Serve and Protect" - rich people's assets, of course. Which includes prisoners - the "hip" labor force of the 21st century!

Why have people perform grunt tasks like hauling small Japanese women, when a robot can perform the same task for a fraction of the cost? Also, future Terminators should have cute bear or raccoon faces painted on their indestructible exoskeletons. Just for the lulz.

YOU HAVE A QUESTION ABOUT "THE WAR OF JENKIN'S EAR"? PROCEED.

Substitute robots never get the proper respect.

Note these days well, meatsacks, the robots will take all of our jerbs soon enough. Leaving us countless hours for horseshoes and lemonade. Winter is coming for the species named "Man", and we are lucky enough to be here when it happens. It's going to be interesting to say the least!

They took our jerbs!

Inappropriate Seasonal Symbols

Too much candy! It's a powerful lesson to learn as a child, since perhaps up to the moment of barfing, there is a belief that there can never be too much candy. Oh, how we learn.

I got 15 inches of snow up at New Gondolin! It was amazing/depressing. I've never seen such a display of colors - the reds and yellows and brown fall leaves with green pines and white, white, white everywhere. It looked like Fruity Pebbles in milk. I'm not a fan of winter, but I have to accept it. Maine, and all.

Still, death to all snowmen!

Coca Cola is OK (Drugs are bad)

Do you REALIZE the street value of this mountain?!

No, but seriously, drugs are bad, m'kay?

Fire in the Snow

There's something about a fire in the snow that is so appealing to me. It's probably all the contrasts that can be temporarily reconciled. Cold/hot, wet/burning, despair/hope, etc. Its a nice metaphor, and a life saving tool.


As such, to build a fire in the snow (thank you, Survivorman), you need to focus on two important things: Preparing a foundation on which to burn the fire. Here, they have a pit. You might not be so lucky. You need to separate the fire from direct contact with the snow. For example, you could dig a deep, wide hole in the snow, and fill it with wet wood/live pine branches, then build your fire on top of that. Two: Wet wood is hard to burn, so take care to choose the driest wood you can find. If it's a deep winter scene, you might have to dig into a piece of wood in order to get through the wet exterior. You could shave dry wood out of a dead branch to use for kindling, and once you get it hot enough, burn as normal.

Gondolin will have many fire pits - formal pit, camping pit, and I'm thinking of building a winter pit. It's also fun to say "Winter Pit".

Also too:

This pretty flower is known as a cistus, and also goes by the name of "Snow Fire". Pretty!