Archive for May, 2008
Checking for Crosspost Capability
Posted by Michael Livingston in Uncategorized on May 17th, 2008
Testing, testing, testing
Friday Fireworks
Posted by Michael Livingston in Uncategorized on May 16th, 2008
Our minor league baseball team here in Charleston — the Riverdogs — has a beautiful stadium not far from the Citadel campus. It’s a terrific little ballpark, full of family-friendly fun. Friday night homegames, for instance, come with a dazzling fireworks display at the end, win or lose. And this is no small fireworks display. I’m talking about a minutes-long sequence of big boomers and flourishing fountains of color that light up the night sky. The whole business is quite extraordinary.
I should know. Our house backs up to a gorgeous expanse of tidal marsh off the Ashley River, and on the other side of that wildlife-filled marsh sits, in all its resplendent glory and firework-launching preparedness, the ballpark. We have one hell of a view when the ‘crackers start going.
The downside? Well, for starters the boomers tend to hit late at night — it’s 11:10 here, and this week’s rendition just finished up — so they tend to wake up wee hobbits trying to sleep hereabouts. The second problem is Sydney the Wondermutt, who is trembling afraid of fireworks, thunder, and — we had to move to The Citadel to find this out — cannons. Poor pup.
Anasazi Petroglyph Map
Posted by Michael Livingston in Academics, Homelife on May 15th, 2008
My brother, in addition to being a remarkably fine photographer of the old rite, has become rather adept at the new rite of digital photography. Give him a picture and Photoshop and the results can be breathtaking.
Or instructive. Take, for instance, the photo at left, taken of the petroglyph “map” I found on our recent trek into Anasazi lands. You can see the basic form of it here — two meeting squiggles, which I daresay look like joining canyons — but it’s tough to make out.
Lance was able to take this picture and do some enhancing on it, creating the second image at left. What is undoubtedly the petroglyph is marked in yellow; what may or may not be man-made is in blue. What I recall from first-hand viewing was that most of this “blue” stuff is natural, with the possible exception of the horizontal line. I also recall thinking that the yellow splotch looked a bit like a fellow waving, but that may be due to my having recently been staring at the petroglyph below Moon Phase Ruin that was undoubtedly doing that.
So has anyone out there seen anything quite like this before? This is the only Anasazi “map” I’ve ever seen — if indeed it is a map — and I’d love to hear of other examples or even alternative explanations.
The The Impotence of Proofreading
Posted by Michael Livingston in Teaching on May 13th, 2008
My brother, Lance, sent me a link to a video of a fine gentleman, Taylor Mali, ranting about “What Teachers Make.” A few clicks brought me to this, a disturbingly true look at the state of students’ proofing skillz:
Visiting Writers
Posted by Michael Livingston in Homelife on May 12th, 2008
I had a chance yesterday to visit for a couple of hours with two young writers: Beth Wodzinski (also editor of Shimmer Magazine) and Sean Markey. Lovely people, both of them. I was still rather tired out from my recent adventures, so I hope I didn’t seem too out of it.
Got back to my email today and discovered that Alethea Kontis, a brilliant lass, also passed through town yesterday. 
Sad. It would have been lovely to have Beth, Lee, and Sean all together at my house at once!
Anasazi Trek 2008
Posted by Michael Livingston in Adventure, Homelife on May 11th, 2008
What follows is a report on three days of exploring in the backcountry of southeastern Utah and northern Arizona. A slideshow of images illustrating the whole can be found halfway through the account.
DAY ONE
Today we hunted Anasazi ruins.
There’s a story behind this, as you would imagine, and it has to do with my parents’ 40th wedding anniversary, as you probably would not imagine.
You see, my family has always been a bit on the, well, adventuring side of things. Growing up, my vacations were only rarely to amusement parks and tourist traps. No, we were more apt to pack full our big four wheel drive rig, hitch up the trailer, and drive up to the mountains where we’d pass the time rattling up old mining roads, hiking over pristine mountainsides, and generally enjoying the outdoors. My parents thus instilled in me a love of adventure.
Fly-fishing Action
Posted by Michael Livingston in Adventure, Homelife on May 4th, 2008
These are a few pictures from this morning’s trek on the South Platte River here in Colorado, courtesy my dad. Good stuff. We hiked into the canyon — a mile or two to our fishing spot, at most — which gave me a chance to appreciate my brand new 7-piece Orvis fly rod. It was a hell of a lot easier to carry, that’s for sure!
We were only on the water for a couple hours, but it was beautiful weather for it: blue sky above the canyon, hardly a hint of wind. The water was running hard and deep — over 900 cfs, which is pretty wild — so we weren’t able to wade out very far. Not to mention we didn’t have waders and the water was cold.
Anyway, I had a few strikes here and there, but I’d not latched into anything and time was getting short when I got this feeling that there was bound to be a fish in this one little hole I’d been fishing around. I’d been testing out the weight on my line — with fast water you need a lot of weight to go deep, where the fish tend to be — so I felt like I had the right rig for hitting the spot. Folks tend to think of “holes” being behind rocks, but they can also form upstream of rocks if they’re situated just right. Such was the case with this spot. I crept up from behind the boulder, tentatively casting out around it, trying to get the drag out of my line enough to let my fly set up in the hole. Two or three casts and I nailed it. WHAM!
Colorado Home
Posted by Michael Livingston in Homelife on May 4th, 2008
I’ve been absent for a bit around here, but it is for good reason: I’ve been driving across the country from Charleston to Colorado — fighting one hell of a wind on the way — and then recovering from said drive. I’m here in Colorado meeting up with my parents and brother, as we’re taking a wee family trip for the next week down to canyon country in pursuit of some uncharted Anasazi ruins. Spent a good bit of time yesterday looking at satellite photos in preparation. All looks like it’ll go well.
Must away for the moment, but once things slow down a bit I’ll post in more detail about what’s transpired. It should be an adventure!
Actually, it already has been. My dad and I went fly-fishing up on the South Platte this morning, and I latched into the biggest rainbow trout I’ve ever seen in the flesh. Monstrous. Fought it for quite a while, with video to prove it. More on that (including pictures, perhaps?), too, when there’s time.
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