Penn State v. Wisconsin

A few pictures here of Beaver stadium, et cetera, during the Penn State versus Wisconsin football game on 5 November 2005:

http://train.ed.psu.edu/family/wisc2005 It was the 35th birthday of my son, David. He came to the game with me. Penn State won and took possession of 1st place in the Big 10.

Photos of Spring Creek

Spring Creek is, according to ESPN Outdoors, "rife with trout and they happen to be wild brown trout, relatives of former stocked trout." Took the photos today. Cut some hawthorne briars, too. Fun to be in the woods a bit and to see the ring of life tighten.

Sun rising over Mount Nittany on the crisp Fall morning of 13 November 2005...

I decided to show the blur of color that sunrise seems
rather than the crisp representation of it Grackles, Goodbye
--Robert Penn Warren

Black of grackles glints purple as, wheeling in sun-glare,
The flock splays away to pepper the blueness of distance.
Soon they are lost in the tracklessness of air.
I watch them go. I stand in my trance.

Another year gone. In trance of realization,
I remember once seeing a first fall leaf, flame-red, release
Bough-grip, and seek, through gold light of the season's sun,
Black gloss of a mountain pool, and there drift in peace.

Another year gone. And once my mother's hand
Held mine while I kicked the piled yellow leaves on the lawn
And laughed, not knowing some yellow-leaf season I'd stand
And see the hole filled. How they spread their obscene fake lawn.

Who needs the undertaker's sick lie
Flung thus in the teeth of Time, and the earth's spin and tilt?
What kind of fool would promote that kind of lie?
Even sunrise and sunset convict the half-wit of guilt.

Grackles, goodbye! The sky will be vacant and lonely
Till again I hear your horde's rusty creak high above,
Confirming the year's turn and the fact that only, only,
In the name of Death do we learn the true name of Love.

Even greyhounds can meditate...

Cody, 10 years old, on the back deck
on a fall Saturday in 2005 Cody was 8 years old when we adopted him. He had raced for only a brief time in his youth. He had lived most of his life on a farm in a dirthy, flithy pen with two other greyhounds. Over 100 other dogs also were kept on the farm. His owners were arrested for cruelty to animals, and 30 dogs had to be destroyed when the farm was raided due to the dogs' poor condition. Cody had worms, a very empty belly, and a winter coat like a horse gets when outside all of the time. He had to have 10 teeth removed due to neglect. That's all long ago in his life.

I can't say enough about Spam Arrest

I have been using a "challenge" e-mail system for about the last year to eliminate spam. That is, you cannot send e-mail to me unless you are authorized by me or unless you authorize yourself. You cannot be a "bot" (i.e., a robot) sending me spam because most bots are not intelligent enough to respond to a challenge. Moreover, the e-mail addresses of most spammers do not exist after their first uses.

The service I use is called Spam Arrest. From the Spam Arrest web site:

When you signup for Spam Arrest, you will receive a new @spamarrest.com email address. You can also protect your existing email accounts by forwarding them to your Spam Arrest email address, or by having Spam Arrest periodically poll them.

All of your non-spam email is placed into your Spam Arrest inbox, which you can access using POP3 or IMAP from your email program (such as Outlook or Eudora) or from any web browser using our powerful webmail system.

I receive zero spam. Zero. Try it: if you never have sent e-mail to me, do it using the address, dlp@psu.edu, and see what happens. You will receive a challenge e-mail.

Check it out.

Not an ad; just an appreciation.