The Domestic non-Adventures of a Long Weekend

This past weekend was a long one. I get every other Friday off. First things first though, I got a dental checkup. I snapped this pic and posted on Instagram. Turns out one of my Instagram friends, whom I have never met, goes to the same dentist.

Instagram blows my mind. On Facebook I at least know most of my “friends” at least a little bit. I have 200 or so Instagram friends and know most of them only by their photographs. It blows my mind sometimes this networks we build. Does this modern way of networking blow your mind also.

Afterwards Heather and I met up and went to see “Her” a very clever but disturbing movie about a guy that falls in love with his computer’s operating system. Seriously. Good flick though. But it is not the movie the trailers lead you to believe it is.

Later on we picked the kid up at school and took him to his barber. It is a kids paradise. They can play video games while they wait and watch movies while getting their hair cut. Plus, there the walls and plastered with messages like the above. I can’t figure out though if the messages are reminders for the barber or for his customers, or the customer’s parents.

Saturday morning I took Logan up to All Star Therapy for his weekly ride. The weather was nice enough that we went outside. .

Sunday afternoon we went to see the touring broadway show Chicago at the Performing Arts Center. I don’t know what it was, but I was just “meh” about it. Maybe it was the lady sitting next to me. She chomped on her gum the whole first half of the performance. Plus I could smell the flavoring of the gum. Yuck.

But hey, we are watching the Grammy Awards as I write this. The creativity and dynamism of the performances blow me away. Pink especially, she sang her song “Try” while doing some sort of trapeze act with ropes. It was amazing and I don’t think she was lip synching.

So, how was your weekend?

Scavenger Hunt Sunday – On the Water

Ribbon

I cheated here. I didn’t have a single ribbon pic on file that didn’t involve Christmas and right now, I am not into Christmas. So how about a concrete ribbon. Except this one is asphalt. Except the asphalt is over some concrete. Way out in western Oklahoma on Interstate 40.

Writing or Letters

Another example of my non-refinement. Not a single pic available of writing anything. All our writing is online. So how about these letters made out of driftwood nailed on the side of restaurant out in the middle of nowhere somewhere between Seattle and Mount Rainier.

Notice

When I see a notice like this. I tend to pay attention. Here in Oklahoma I always assume that snakes could be present any time of the year. I recommend that you do also when you visit.

Silhouette

A late afternoon dog walk during a warmer and greener time of year.

On Water

My wife and son in a canoe at Island Park, Idaho last summer. I bet that pond has a coat of ice on it at least a foot thick.

Scavenger Hunt Sunday

Thanks Daryl of Through My Eyes and Out and About in New York for fixing my header. You are awesome. You get the coveted Birthday Angel Award!!

Enjoy!

“Her” with Joaquin Phoenix and Scarlett Johanssen by Spike Jonze

I had Saturday off and the kid was in school so Heather and I went to see “Her” an intriguing movie set in the not so far future about a lonely guy who falls in love with a computer program. Joaquin Phoenix plays Theodore Twombly a lonely, sensitive, recently divorced guy who works for a web service that writes emotion laden handwritten letters for people. His life consists of work, a creepy video game, and anonymous phone sex. Plus he and the other guys in the movie wear really weird high waist-ed pants.

He hears about a computer operating system that purports to listen to you and conform itself to your needs. So he buys it and as part of the install process the program asks him questions about himself and Theodore hems and haws and stumbles around. The program installs and he meets “Samantha” (voiced by Scarlett Johanssen) his new friend and operating system. Samantha sounds a lot nicer than Siri, if you know what you mean.

Samantha starts out helping him organize his emails and such and then later on she starts providing emotional support for Theodore who is still not over his divorce and doesn’t know what he wants. Then later on she starts having emotional needs of her own. And then they fall in love.

And this is set in the near future and by then emotional bonds between operating systems and people are becoming accepted and there is even cheating by operating systems.

Pretty soon ole Theodore is pretty much full on in love with Samantha but then the dust bunnies start showing up. One thing that happened in is marriage was that his wife grew and Theodore didn’t grow with her so they grew apart. Personally I think his strange pants also played a role. Now Samantha is also starting to grow.

In a certain sense I loved this movie. It is very creative and brave and I thought it had a lot to say about our love of technology and how we are letting it take over our life. I mean everybody is staring at their handhelds now days whereever they are, including me. We have an incredible number of apps to play with and interact with total strangers. It is just amazing. It is not that much of a jump to a highly programmed friendly accepting voice that wants to help us is it?

I also thought it had to say a lot about relationships and what makes them succeed and what makes them fail.

This is a first rate story and a first rate movie and I give it five stars out of five. I just wished it had told its story without so many f words and explicit sex scenes. The phone sex was just plain embarrassing.

So if you haven’t figured it out, leave the kiddos at home if you are going to see this.

The Prize: The Epic Quest for Oil, Money, and Power by Daniel Yergin

I just got through reading “The Prize: The Epic Quest for Oil, Money, and Power” by Daniel Yergin.

I have been working on it for months. It is a long dense book and I read it in parallel with a bunch of shorter lighter books. That is the only way that I can read “Epic” books. I need little breaks from it.

(A collection of gas station signs in Tulsa, Oklahoma)

The book is about the Oil Industry, its start and development and how the industry affected the world around it. I was really interested in it because even though I am not in the oil industry, I am in the energy industry and have been for 40 years this May. I started out working summers, chopping weeds and fixing flowline leaks for Mobil Oil Corporation as a roustabout in the Wasson Field in the Permian Basin of west Texas. The energy industry has employed me for forty years.

(Stripper Oil Well in Osage County, Oklahoma)

The first thing I learned is that oil saved the whales. What! Yep. I didn’t know that oil was first used to make kerosene for lighting our homes and businesses. Oil replaced whale oil. The whales were being hunted to extinction in order to get their oil for lighting. So next time you start cussing the oil industry, just remember to thank them for the whales that are left.

(I am not sure what this is but it sure is a manly piece of equipment pertaining to drilling oil wells)

The book focuses mainly on the business and political side of the business rather than the technical and geological side. So he writes about the John D. Rockefeller and the Standard Oil Companies and goes into some depth on the sharp business practices. I’ve seen some sharp business practices in my time by Rockefeller took them to a new level. The book goes into other companies also, many of whom I have worked for in my career. There really and truly was a global contest going on between companies trying to keep and grow their oil business.

(Fellow citizens, pipeline construction union members advocating for Keystone XL at Corps of Engineer hearing in Tulsa)

This of course led to the huge integrated companies that sourced their oil in the Middle East and Venezuela and used that oil in their refineries and then fought each other for market share at the corner gasoline station. When I started work for Mobil it was in the last days of when they and other majors controlled oil production in the Middle East.

(Fellow citizen protesting Keystone XL at a Corps of Engineers hearing in Tulsa)

The book spends a lot of time on the buildup to the first oil crisis where the Middle East countries who had the oil realized that they were basically giving this valuable commodity away plus the realized that they could withhold oil to punish countries they didn’t have the “right” policies toward Israel. And then of course the whole Iranian debacle where the Shah was deposed and the hostages and the humiliation of the United States as we danced the dance we were told to dance.

(Getting ready for massive hydraulic fracturing of a well in the Colony Wash Field of Oklahoma)

And then later, the recession of the 80’s that caused oil consumption to plummet and the OPEC countries outdid each other in discounting their oil prices to maintain market share. And then when Saudi Arabia got tired of being the swing producer and then jacked up their output and flooded the world with cheap crude oil. That led to the oil energy recession of the 80’s where tens of thousands of my fellow energy employees were driven out of the industry. But what the heck, gas was below a buck.

(Cryogenic Natural Gas Processing Plant in the Mississippi Lime field of Oklahoma)

The book is good and it is thorough but it is controversial. Some people don’t like it because they say that Yergin is an apologist for the oil industry. I am not sure what that means because he writes about the intrigues and schemes both legal and otherwise by the captains of this industry and doesn’t glorify them or admire them for those things at all. They really are hair raising and if one wonders why we have all our anti-trust and insider trading laws this book would be a good place to start.

(Increased density drilling in the Cana Woodford Shale field of Oklahoma,)

I am friends with a lot of people who are not in the industry and it is no big secret that the industry is held in low regard. It gets blamed for a lot the ills. And some of it is justified. I’ll tell you that that not one drop of oil would get produced if somebody didn’t buy it. World oil demand is over 100 million barrels of oil a day. I happen to know that a 100 tank car railroad train of oil holds 66,000 barrels of oil. The world is burning enough oil every day to fill out 1515 of these trains.

(http://www.advisorperspectives.com/commentaries/global_111211.php)

And that is why the industry is drilling wells here, there and everywhere. They are doing it so that you and I can buy gasoline relatively cheaply. I am not one that thinks that drillers should be allowed to drill anywhere they want. I think that our country through our legislators and government should set the rules and hold the drillers accountable for violating them.

Oooooops, sorry. I got on an editorial.

The book is good. But it is a grind to read. I loved it. I give it five stars.

Six Word Friday – The Pines at Natural Falls State Park

The Mysterious Pines Keep Their Secrets

Six Word Fridays

Skywatch Friday – A Pinhole Sky

A view of the sky taken with a pinhole film camera, a Holga 135 PC. The camera has a 0.25 millimeter hole instead of a lens and uses 35 mm film. So it is really old school. I use an Ipod Touch App to tell me how long to hold the shutter open so there is some tech involved. I also have to use a tripod and cable release to get decent results. Which looks kind of funny overall because the camera is an inexpensive plastic contraption. But I have fun with it.

Skywatch Friday

Wednesday Windows

I like to get outside at least a little bit every day even if it is real cold or hot. I hate days where for one reason or another I don’t leave the office. Getting outside is a chance to reboot and back off during the middle of the day.Of course I take my camera be it my cell phone, Ipod Touch, or a “real” camera with me.

This is a condo conversion going on in a former Men’s clothing store on the south edge of downtown. I just love the new windows from Sun Tint and the old brick. I’m thinking this could end up being a great place to be.

This is the Hyatt Regency towards the north end. It is your typical 70’s version beige corporate hotel. A nice place but forgettable. I stayed here several times traveling on business before I lived in Tulsa.

These are my favorite windows downtown especially the big arched first floor. Can you imagine the light? I have posted pics of these windows several times. I’m getting kind of old and you have to cut me some slack. You have to cut me some slack cuz I’m getting kind of old.

Do you have a favorite window?

Going on a Walk with the Kid

Sunday was a great day. I knew that I was going to be watching a lot of football and I wanted to get outside. Before the games started. Actually I dvr’d the games. Who watches games in real time any more? I dragged Logan along with me. He hates to be seen in public with his Dad now days. I don’t blame him.

We went to Lafortune Park here in Tulsa. It’s a big, combination county park and golf course and tennis complex, and library, and gardens (kind of) with a high school campus in South Tulsa. It has a nice walking track all the way around it and makes for a three mile loop. I’ve run it and walked it hundreds of times in our 22 years here in Tulsa. I love it.

In addition to the tennis players we saw golfers.

And trees, Tulsa has lots of trees. I practiced using the backlighting setting on my camera. I’m in my bare tree mode now days. Happens every winter.

We saw some playgrounds. This is a Y playground across the road from Lafortune Park. The park has some nice playgrounds that were loaded with kids. I’m not really into taking pictures of other people’s kids. Some parents don’t like you doing that and I’m totally okay with them not liking it. So I don’t generally do it.

We saw some water features and bridges on the par three course.

And another bare tree.

I love this moose. He has the most comical look on his face. Why does Lafortune Park have a moose sculpture? If you find out tell me and then we’ll both know.

And a duck pond. They all moved away from me. I don’t blame them. Nobody was cooperating on Sunday.

And a swimming pool Notice the orange hazard fencing. Safety first folks! Some safety person probably required the fencing to go up.

And then more golfers. I had to tell son that it is impolite, but very funny, to yell, “You the MAN!!” when somebody hits the ball. Unless its your boss or a customer, then you say “OH My Gawd! Bob, look how far that went! Look at that thing go” Just make sure that he or she doesn’t whiff it. It comes across a sarcasm then.

Then we come across some manly machinery. Or semi manly anyway. That is like the smallest trackhoe I’ve ever seen.

And a bull dozer and a front end loader. Have I ever told you that I love construction equipment of all kinds?

When we end, he asks in that deep booming voice that he’s getting “Can we go to Game Stop and get a points card.” Whatever a points card is. Something to do with video games. You download “content” with it he tells me. What’s content. I’m such a burden to the young man.

So, what did you do Sunday before the games?

Scavenger Hunt Sunday – What Are You Comfortable With?

Hat

I just love stealing shots from photo shoots. I shot this during a very chilly morning at Tulsa’s Woodward Park. The model had to be freezing. I was cold and I was wearing a coat. I guess you could say that she was suffering for my art.

Antique

I learned something new about spurs this year. Something my Dad didn’t even know. I found out about “Gal Leg” spurs. They were very popular in the “Old West.” Can you see why they call it Gal Leg? I found this at Frank Phillips (of Phillips 66 Fame) old ranch at Woolaroc.

Something You Are Comfortable With

I am very comfortable with taking off on a trail. Any trail, anywhere. I’ve never gotten lost. I just have to know where it goes.

Who is there?

Sometimes the kid has to turn the tables on the bloggerdad.

A Door

I love these doors at Kansas City’s Union Station. The old train station in the middle of town. I can just imagine the hundreds of thousands of people who went in and out of these doors back in the day.