What about Wade?

What else? (Monthly Journal in reverse chronological order)

September 2010: The news of the month is that I am now in the middle of Scouting's Wood Badge training. I endured the first weekend, and the second is ahead. "I used to be Bobwhite!" So now it is onwards and upwards with Scouting, as I work my ticket, learn more about being a Unit Commissioner, and I just learned there are Sea Scouts in this area, and I'm going to see about getting involved.

But I also wanted to share this little article I wrote, although completely off topic. Tell me whether you agree.

The Seven Wonders of the Solar System

Long ago, so the story goes, the Greeks produced a guide for travelers, listing seven locations and monuments that everyone absolutely needed to visit: the Great Pyramids of Giza, Hanging Gardens of Babylon, Statue of Zeus at Olympia, Temple of Artemis at Ephesus, Mausoleum of Halicarnassus, Colossus of Rhodes, and Pharos of Alexandria. Recently, an effort was made to update this list via global online voting: the Taj Mahal in India, Chichen Itza in Mexico, Statue of Christ the Redeemer in Rio de Janeiro, Roman Coliseum, Great Wall of China, Incan city of Machu Piccu in Peru, and City of Petra, Jordan. Soon, with vehicles able to go beyond the atmosphere and distances measured in parsecs rather than miles, maybe we will need yet a new list. Here is my proposal.

To those traveling from afar, welcome to the Orion Arm of the Milky Way Galaxy! The star you have arrived at is known to locals as Sol, Helios, Sun, Sunna, and a handful of other names. It is a main sequence, yellow dwarf star, classification G2V. It is composed primarily of hydrogen and helium, and has an absolute magnitude of +4.83. Its satellite group includes four rocky/ metallic planets, four gas giant planets, and numerous smaller objects such as asteroids and dwarf planets/ planetoids. Several of the planets have moons orbiting alongside them.

While visiting, we are certain you will not want to miss the chance to explore and witness seven specific sites or phenomenon. These Seven Wonders are sure to delight the senses, enthrall the mind, and leave lasting memories.

1)Solar Flares/ Coronal Mass Ejections

As magnetic fields surrounding the central star fluctuate, large explosions within the stellar atmosphere occur, causing huge emissions of matter and energy. These are frequently manifested as magnificent orange arches rising miles above the corona. Timing your visit is important, as there is a periodic fluctuation measured as 11 orbits of the third rocky planet, with peak activity producing one every several minutes, to minimums of one every few hundred hours.

2)Life on Earth

Several sets of unique conditions on the third rocky planet have colluded to allow it to sustain carbon-based life forms capable of photosynthesis, respiration, digestion, growth, reproduction, and more. A very broad variety of species call this planet home, from microscopic single-celled organisms to creatures over 30 meters in size and hundreds of kilograms in mass. These life forms have found niches on both land and water, in hot and cold, almost everywhere on the planet. Some of the species have developed tool use, language, and problem-solving intelligence.

3)Olympus Mons on Mars

The largest of all volcanoes in the system, at 550 km wide and 27 km high, resides on the fourth rocky planet. It boasts a caldera at its peak 85 km wide and up to 3 km deep. Unlike volcanoes elsewhere, Olympus Mons has remained fixed over a single hot spot for millions of years, allowing it to build to its remarkable size. Lava flowing down its sides has left an impressive array of channels. It is unknown whether the volcano is currently active.

4)Jupiter's Great Red spot

The first and largest of the gas giant planets is torn by a hurricane-like storm that could almost swallow all of the four rocky/ metallic planets by itself. This storm has been churning for a couple hundred years, and although showing signs of decline, is likely to continue for another hundred years or more. Though best viewed when the storm is illuminated by the local star, the lightning show when on the dark side is also sure to delight. If you have the time and equipment, a time-lapse view is definitely worth it.

5)Europa's Sub-surface Ocean

The original Seven Wonders contained a location whose existence is debated, the Hanging Gardens; in fact, the most compelling evidence that it might have been real is being on the Ancients' List of Seven Wonders. This Wonder may be similar. The surface of the sixth moon of Jupiter is solid ice, criss-crossed by many lines which seem to be indicative of tectonic-like motion. However, most scientists believe that a layer of liquid water, kept warm by tidal forces from the parent gas giant, gives rise to a vast ocean encircling the entire sphere of Europa, kept hidden by the icy surface miles thick. If it is there, and you can drill your way down to it, you may find some of the clearest liquid water in the entire system.

6)The Rings of Saturn

Although other planets in this system support rings, it is the second gas whose are the largest and most beautiful. The rings consist primarily of clumps water ice but also containing dust and many other chemical impurities, and range in size from less than a millimeter to a few meters. These clumps reflect and refract light from the local star and the planet itself, resulting in a colorful and awe-inspiring display.

7)Comets

Time your visit just right, and you may witness a singularly spectacular display. If one of potentially trillions of small clumps of ice and dust that normally inhabit the system’s outermost reaches gets just the right gravitational kick, it can be sent hurtling into a hyperbolic or highly eccentric elliptical orbit, passing through the territory of the planets and close by to the sun. As this happens, the solar winds blow matter off the object. Reflection of sunlight by dust and glowing of ionized gasses combine into a shimmering tail streaking away.

August 2010: For those following along at home, I made it, I am now a coxswain in the United States Coast Guard Auxiliary. Very exciting! Work has been a bit of drag, as my allocated project is on indefinite hold, and while the client figures it out, I am stuck doing grunt support tasks for another project. But time will make it all better. For this month, I want to share a little essay with you. Whether you agree with it or not, take the time to think about it. If it matters, I wrote this, and would call myself a right-leaning libertarian.

On Being a Jerk in America

Being an American means having many rights. Some are specifically codified in the Constitution and other Laws: the right to publish information and opinions in the press; or the right to confront your accuser. Others are more abstract, yet more fundamental: the right to come and go at will; the right to not be physically harmed by others. Still, there are some rights that derive from the previous as logical corollaries.

Among these derived rights, each American has the right to think, say, and do any stupid, insulting, insipid, and heinous thing that one might imagine. In short, we have the right to be a Jerk. Or if you prefer, an a-hole, a prick, a caca-head, an m'er f'er, whatever. Try as hard as we might to not exercise it, the right is still there. Like it or not, each of us has been a Jerk at least once in our lives. Thankfully, as Americans, no one can arrest us for it.

Yet there is an irony here. One might be asking, "Do we not also have the right to not be exposed to Jerks? Don't we have the right to not have cigarette smoke around, to not be cut-off in traffic, to not hear that dirty joke, to not see profane imagery?"

My answer is no, that right we do not have. Though we may desire it from time to time, someone else's right to be a Jerk trumps the right to not be around Jerks. But there are rights that we do have. We can point and say, "Hey! You are a Jerk" then walk away. Or we could ignore it. Don't look, don't listen. Change the channel. Don't pay any attention.

I won't say it is easy, as some Jerks are far worse than others. The small few Jerks who would call others cracker, nigger, gook, wop, or beaner, can be really hard to accept. (And for those of you, dear readers, who think I am an offensive Jerk for using these words, please note my context very carefully.) As a white male, I am deeply offended when I hear myself referred to as a cracker, and when other terms are used for other races, I can understand that it offends those of that race. In fact, we should all take offense when anyone is offended for such a reason.

Yet the Jerks remain. They use these words. And they are Americans. That is their right, and we must not only admit it, we must defend it!

That brings me to another ironic situation. In order to gain the right to be a Jerk, America soldiers and sailors went off to distant lands and fought for all of our rights. The veterans among us today sacrificed much. Some saw buddies die in thier arms. Some left parts of thier bodies behind. All left parts of thier innocence behind. Then they came home, and were met by a bunch of Jerks who spit on them, called them baby-killers and burned and defaced Old Glory, the banner they had rallied around.

I know that each veteran must be thinking, is this the reason I went through hell? Well, in a way, yes it is. Along with the veterans, I hate these Jerks, and I condemn their deeds. But imagine a nation in which people are jailed for speaking such opinions and making such gestures of protest, offensive and misguided as they may be. Is THAT the American way you fought for? Damn right it isn't.

So go ahead and indulge in a little moderate Jerk-iness once in while. It is your right, my fellow American. When the bigger Jerks come along, go ahead and be angry. That is your right also.

July 2010: I've been a bit remiss in keeping up with this journal. I've taken the time to look a good source for web-safe fonts, and make changes to a few of the pages here, especially this one. You are now reading Verdana font. I should give credit where due, so thank you very much to the folks at  Ampsoft  for the excellent guide.

What excites me right now is the fact that I ought to be able to check ride for coxswain in the U.S. Coast Guard Auxiliary very soon. I've been wanting to wear the crossed-oars insignia for quite some time, and that desire should come true within another month. To help celebrate, here is the featured image for this month, a pair of vintage Coast Guard aircraft, probably late 70s/ early 80s.

April 2010: For my second entry here, I am proud to announce that my little application, the Virtual Vessel Examiner, has caught attention at high levels. After completing a few small enhancements, the VVE is now a feature of safetyseal.net, a joint site of the National US Coast Guard Auxiliary and the US Power Squadron. I'm published!! How cool is that? Staying humble, I must again acknowledge the dozens of people who tested and reviewed the early versions and were brutally honest with their feedback. Take that as advise, readers- you can not be your best without occassionally letting other people tell you where you're going wrong.

Another thing I have decided to do is post a photo with some of these journal entries. These photos may be some of my own, or ones I found on the net and found interesting. This one falls in the found interesting column. It is a leafy sea dragon, shown in striking color-contrast in this image, but ordinarily completely camoflaged within kelp fields, experts say it is sometimes difficult to find them, even in plain sight. Enjoy, Wade.

March 2010: I've concluded that this section of my website ought to be a form of journal. Obviously I won't be posting anything too personal or private here, but if you are a friend or colleague trying to check up on me, see what I am up to these days, I'd like this to be your answer. Clearly among the significant accomplishments recently has been to abandon free hosting through an ISP, purchase my own domain and begin to make something of it. I'm also proud that in the last month I had software released: both my project at work, and my pro-bono effort for USCGAux, the Virtual Vessel Examiner. But what I am going to focus on in this post is a significant moment that occurred this past month: The Boy Scouts of America turned 100 years old. I am a product of the BSA program, earning Eagle in 1989, briefly was employed as a Scouting executive, and continue to volunteer for the betterment of the organization. I became the man I am due to the Scouting experiences and role models back then. I decided to commemorate this event, and my own 20th anniversary as an Eagle, by slowly scouring eBay for vintage Eagle and other rank patches. I suceeded in gathering one of each of the nine major styles of Eagle patch, from the current issue all the way back to the original 1924-1932 embroidery swath design. I also obtained three different series of Scout through Life emblems. I recently completed mounting these and having them custom framed. It is an exiting display, representing a lot of history. I have thought about loaning it to the local council for others to enjoy during this anniversary period. To me this display represents that one place during my teens years where I felt most accepted, where my closest friends were, where the learning was real and so was the fun (completely unlike school). Maybe others will view it differently. But among the 20+ total patches one stands out- the eighth among the nine Eagles. Mine. The one pinned to my chest pocket by my now-deceased mother. The one that in order to earn I had to build, place, and monitor dozens of blue-bird nest boxes at Grand Rapids nature center, my service project. The one where I had to discover my leadership to achieve. To me, that is the prettiest patch of all. Until next month, Wade.