Something really weird happened on Veterans Day in Texas. It's been in the news for a week now. And obviously, we don't know what really happened yet and probably never will. I looked on Google News a minute ago and they are as right now over 1400 news articles on this "story"so far. By the time you are reading this post they will be more. Until one day when this news is going to die.
What we know so far. "speed limit through Midland was increased last year from 40 mph to 60
mph in order to facilitate not blocking traffic. Also the eyewitness
says the crossing gate came down right on the people, so clearly that
was functioning". From a comment taken from here. It's been a week and yes, the Police ID'd the victims so far. No word on the guilty. While we assume attempts are being made to "re-conciliate" everybody involved until they go quiet.
The crossing gate came down on the people. And there is no sensor to show that and attempt to stop the train. Also probably no sensor to pick any car that by technical reasons have been caught on the rail while crossing gates are coming down.
So far i was saying to myself this is the weirdest damn thing i've read in the news lately. Then i went and opened the first link given by Google. This one. "Texas had 822 railroad crossing accidents during the three years ending in December 2011".
Lately i've been browsing job offers. For the better paying state jobs and not only, there usually are long descriptions impossible to read and understand. So many requirements i've never heard of that discourage me from even finishing reading the description. Sometimes i'm wondering if those requirements can be matched by a single individual.
But somehow i started to believe the longer the description the better is that job being "protected" from outsiders so it can be given to whoever. There is no other explanation for what is happening there. A lot of people working for the state of Texas are not doing their jobs. I'm just curious, how many rail crossing accidents that had not made "the news" happened there since this one?
And then i realized. They shouldn't even call those "the news". They should call them... i don't know, the bait?
Friday, November 16, 2012
Wednesday, November 14, 2012
Ode (In Antique Metre)
by Mihai Eminescu - 1883
Never thought i could learn how to die;
Always young, covered in my mantle,
My serene dreamy eyes were searching the star
Of loneliness.
When suddenly you arose in my path
Sufferance you, painfully sweet...
To the bottom i drank the voluptuous death,
Unforgiving.
Lamentably burning alive like Nessus.
Or like Hercules poisoned by his shirt;
I can't possibly quench my fire with all
Water of the sea.
Of my own dream, consumed i am weeping,
On my own stake, i'm melting in flames...
Can i ever revive shining from it like
The Bird Phoenix?
Disappear the troubling eyes from my path,
Come again to me, sad indifference;
So i can peacefully die, myself
Give back to me!
Never thought i could learn how to die;
Always young, covered in my mantle,
My serene dreamy eyes were searching the star
Of loneliness.
When suddenly you arose in my path
Sufferance you, painfully sweet...
To the bottom i drank the voluptuous death,
Unforgiving.
Lamentably burning alive like Nessus.
Or like Hercules poisoned by his shirt;
I can't possibly quench my fire with all
Water of the sea.
Of my own dream, consumed i am weeping,
On my own stake, i'm melting in flames...
Can i ever revive shining from it like
The Bird Phoenix?
Disappear the troubling eyes from my path,
Come again to me, sad indifference;
So i can peacefully die, myself
Give back to me!
Tuesday, November 13, 2012
Shawn Robert Parker
In January-June 1997 i worked at Epson Portland Incorporated assembling printers. I remembered one night on the line we did 521 printers in a 25 people team, an Epson world record. I remember the name of the supervisor, a Mexican guy. Her wife was a QA auditor and many times she was spending minutes next to me trying to figure out how i do it without making one mistake. I was at the station 4 i guess and i put 9 parts on the printer, including gears and 4 screws with an electric screwdriver. In June one day i became sick. I went home and started not to be able to sleep, eat or drink. At night i was driving my car around on the streets. I went several times to different ER rooms. After about a week or so i went to the Beaverton Police, told them some of the story. They called an ambulance that took me first to the Tuality Medical Center in Hilsboro, then to Emanuel in down town Portland and they called a cab and sent me to Pacific Gateway Hospital in Sellwood, the one who lost its license and closed after Police shot an out of control Mexican inside. It was a mental facility that treated both mental and drug related conditions. I never used drugs in my entire life. Here is my picture after being released from there
One of the symptoms was chocking. I only wish i knew back then where that was coming from. It was a simple nose congestion due to some allergies and was preventing me from sleeping. The other symptom was severe stomach pain. It lasted from 96 to 06. No doctor ever explained to me why but now i suspect i might be related to spine alignment because it went away after going to the chiropractor. But the pain was real and was alleviated by antacids or acid blockers that i took for many years constantly increasing the dosage.
Many weird things happened in the hospital maybe one day i will tell the stories. But let's concentrate now on something else. A couple of weeks after coming from the hospital one day i was walking on Hall Blvd and talking to my wife and thinking about going to a Romanian church. But then i changed my mind, crossed the street and went into BNC (Beaverton Church of the Nazarene). A church in the shape of an UFO.
I was well received in there. Like they were expecting me. They prayed for me laying hands on each other's shoulder. I met pastor Dennis Swift and others.
The next day a guy shows up at our door. He asked us, me and my wife if we wanted to go for a ride in a boat. I looked over his shoulder and there was a big boat in the parking lot hooked to an old green Ford SUV. He insisted a lot and then i said yes. In the car they were his three daughters. I remember only the name of the younger one, Trinity.
He took us on the Willamette river that day. Accompanied by my usual stomach pain and thirsty all the time, i didn't drink anything in the morning and Shawn only had a few cans of soda i couldn't drink because of my stomach pain. Still on Prozac. I think we started in St.John area and went all the way to Willamette Falls and back. We stopped on a channel near an island. I think we ended the day back at the Nazarene church.
I had this 83 Fairmont sitting in the parking lot for almost a year. He came one day with a 20 dollar bill and asked mE to sell it to him. The manager at the apartment already told me several times to get rid of that car so i sold it to him.
In April 98 i was working at Quadramed. I was teaching my wife how to drive. She took the computer test and had a permit. I think i spent hundreds of hours on the right seat on Nimbus St. in Beaverton teaching her. I remember at first she was terrified by the cars that were coming on the other side of the road from the opposite direction. But in spring 98 she was driving OK and she drove all the way from Portland to Tillamook, some 70 miles. Then from Tillamook to the beach near Tillamook bay there is a narrow winding road and i kinda pushed her because i was impatient to get there but she was tired and driving under speed limit and in a sharp left curve she went with the right wheels on the gravel near the road. I think we were in legal speed limit. Quickly and gently i grabed the wheel with my left hand and corrected in time. But she reacted too after, and over corrected. Unbelievable, we went to the... left, inside the curve, we missed the bay, the huge truck parked on the right on the gravel, the incoming car from the opposite direction, made an 180 degree turn and rolled in slow motion in a ditch full of ... mud, that was soft. It is very hard to describe in words the trajectory of the car.
It took me about a minute to figure out which way was up, untigthen her seat belt and roll the driver's door down cause mine was in mud and with the broken window while she was kicking me in the head with her legs. Finally she made it outside and i followed. The only thing that happened to us was me having some scratches on my right arm from the broken passenger window.
The guy with the truck parked outside the curve, kinda illegal i think, on the right, that was kinda like waiting for us in there, with the cell in his hand. Minutes later five cop cars showed but no ambulance. But we didn't need one either. One of the cops cited my wife for careless driving with 180 dollars. Then they called a towing truck and they put our car back on the wheels and i started the engine and it was working.
View Larger Map
Then guess what? Shawn Parker with the girls unexpectedly showed up in a green van with windows also old i haven't seen before or after coming from the beach. He insisted we went with him back to Portland, but i was too attached to that 89 Escort GT to leave it there with the towing guys and i drove with no problems all the way to Portland. (I was also paranoid about that being a recognition of my part we've been somewhat hurt in the accident which we weren't. 04/26/2014).
Did i mentioned the prayers at BNC that morning for each of our country? Dennis repeatedly asked and we both went to the altar, me accompanied by Ron Boger and my wife by his wife. Than we had lunch at Old Country Buffet in Beaverton and i also saw a bunch of people from the church in there. Then we decided to go to the Ocean. Those days we didn't need much to take that decision because we were still young and full of energy.
This post needs to be extended. I will dig into my records to put in more data and pictures.
 |
| In front of what used to be Pacific Gateway Hospital, Sellwood, OR, July 1997 (Prozac Head, can still click me!) |
One of the symptoms was chocking. I only wish i knew back then where that was coming from. It was a simple nose congestion due to some allergies and was preventing me from sleeping. The other symptom was severe stomach pain. It lasted from 96 to 06. No doctor ever explained to me why but now i suspect i might be related to spine alignment because it went away after going to the chiropractor. But the pain was real and was alleviated by antacids or acid blockers that i took for many years constantly increasing the dosage.
Many weird things happened in the hospital maybe one day i will tell the stories. But let's concentrate now on something else. A couple of weeks after coming from the hospital one day i was walking on Hall Blvd and talking to my wife and thinking about going to a Romanian church. But then i changed my mind, crossed the street and went into BNC (Beaverton Church of the Nazarene). A church in the shape of an UFO.
I was well received in there. Like they were expecting me. They prayed for me laying hands on each other's shoulder. I met pastor Dennis Swift and others.
 |
| Beaverton Church of the Nazarene |
 |
| Shawn Robert Parker with "his girls", near Cannon Beach, OR, summer 1997 |
I had this 83 Fairmont sitting in the parking lot for almost a year. He came one day with a 20 dollar bill and asked mE to sell it to him. The manager at the apartment already told me several times to get rid of that car so i sold it to him.
 |
| My ex 83 Ford Fairmont, at Sussex Village Apts, Beaverton, Oregon, 1997 |
It took me about a minute to figure out which way was up, untigthen her seat belt and roll the driver's door down cause mine was in mud and with the broken window while she was kicking me in the head with her legs. Finally she made it outside and i followed. The only thing that happened to us was me having some scratches on my right arm from the broken passenger window.
The guy with the truck parked outside the curve, kinda illegal i think, on the right, that was kinda like waiting for us in there, with the cell in his hand. Minutes later five cop cars showed but no ambulance. But we didn't need one either. One of the cops cited my wife for careless driving with 180 dollars. Then they called a towing truck and they put our car back on the wheels and i started the engine and it was working.
View Larger Map
Then guess what? Shawn Parker with the girls unexpectedly showed up in a green van with windows also old i haven't seen before or after coming from the beach. He insisted we went with him back to Portland, but i was too attached to that 89 Escort GT to leave it there with the towing guys and i drove with no problems all the way to Portland. (I was also paranoid about that being a recognition of my part we've been somewhat hurt in the accident which we weren't. 04/26/2014).
Did i mentioned the prayers at BNC that morning for each of our country? Dennis repeatedly asked and we both went to the altar, me accompanied by Ron Boger and my wife by his wife. Than we had lunch at Old Country Buffet in Beaverton and i also saw a bunch of people from the church in there. Then we decided to go to the Ocean. Those days we didn't need much to take that decision because we were still young and full of energy.
This post needs to be extended. I will dig into my records to put in more data and pictures.
Monday, November 12, 2012
Antz
Remember the movie? We had ants back then too. At the other apartment. But those were bigger, more normal ants. These are tiny, 3-4 mm long. To take this picture in 12/29/2010 i used a 55 mm fixed length lens held by hand at about one inch in front of the 27-105 equivalent focal length from my Sony DSLR 300 camera with the zoom at maximum. It focuses on auto-focus. Can't remember the light source.
They are everywhere on the counter-tops. Especially on the one next to the window. Yesterday i had left about 2 ounces of pomegranate liquor in the bottle. After i drank that i went to sleep normally but woke up kinda wiped out, sort of lethargic. Cannot be the ants that possibly crawled on the bottle and touched the cap now can they? Back then when i took the picture i had traps with honey and borax but they still came. From where? The apartment underneath is vacated.
I looked again while writing this post. The ants disappeared, i can swear i saw them earlier this morning, i'm too used to them anyways. And i also heard a loud door noise and a Jeep noise under the window. The neighbor at Nr.5 left in a hurry.
They are everywhere on the counter-tops. Especially on the one next to the window. Yesterday i had left about 2 ounces of pomegranate liquor in the bottle. After i drank that i went to sleep normally but woke up kinda wiped out, sort of lethargic. Cannot be the ants that possibly crawled on the bottle and touched the cap now can they? Back then when i took the picture i had traps with honey and borax but they still came. From where? The apartment underneath is vacated.
I looked again while writing this post. The ants disappeared, i can swear i saw them earlier this morning, i'm too used to them anyways. And i also heard a loud door noise and a Jeep noise under the window. The neighbor at Nr.5 left in a hurry.
 |
| Antz, eating honey&borax. Click on the picture for better view. |
Saturday, November 10, 2012
49
June 25 2009. I went to http://www.flickr.com/photos/40225793@N07/. Gotta picture to prove. It was one day before my birthday. At the site near the entrance under a roof in the open air they were a bunch of military guys or firefighters celebrating something or having a meal and a meeting or something like that.
Next day afternoon i had my usual "anxiety attack". I knew by then that if i get out of that appartment and go anyware is going to be more bearable. (And after my wife was coming home). Now i know the cause. The same as here. All kind of smokes from burning in purpose all kind of materials in or around the building. And of course synchronized noise from different sources.
So i decided to go to my wife's work place at GE Security at 12345 SW Leveton dr. Tualatin, OR. But i didn't park in her parking lot but in the street next to it i can't remember why. Truck was facing North and i opened the truck's bed's door and sat on it enjoying the Sun and trying to calm down. At around 3:15 PM i started to hear a noise like a waterfall. At first it was smaller and then it grew constantly bigger then i thought an earthquake is going to hit then i thought the whole Niagara falls is coming in that parking lot. But none of this happened. When the noise was right before its peak i saw an elegant gray big bird like silhouette coming from above the building from the South. Then another two. Then another one. Here they were. 4 F22s flying in V formation really slow at about 100-200 ft. I thought i saw pilot's helmets in the cockpits. I was staring at the bay doors under their bellies waiting to see what was going to happen next. They went above and passed towards North. I turned and saw their tails gently balancing just above the horizon with the stabilizers moving discretely. The whole show lasted about 30 seconds. Then they disappeared over horizon with the same speed and altitude. I didn't hear any noise like increasing speed ever after. They must have flown at that altitude over the whole area in that direction, many miles of urban area. Thousands of people might have seen and hear them.
I thought i was really lucky for not peeing in my pants. I went inside the truck trying to think. Then a guy passed by. I asked him if i just saw 4 F22s flying above my head. He said smiling: Something like that, something like that...
My wife showed up. She confirmed the noise. Then i went to the liquor store. I bought some grain alcohol to mix with the blueberries we picked at a upick place, a few days earlier.
At home two guys showed in the parking lot. One was holding a device in his hands like measuring something in the air. By that time i had a filter in the bedroom's door that was pushing filtered air and building a little pressure inside so no other things can get in. Not that they didn't. My wife said i should go and talk to them but i though i had enough emotions for one day.
I was joking with my wife, "we're broke but i just saw 1 billion dollars flying above our heads!"
 |
| click me! |
Next day afternoon i had my usual "anxiety attack". I knew by then that if i get out of that appartment and go anyware is going to be more bearable. (And after my wife was coming home). Now i know the cause. The same as here. All kind of smokes from burning in purpose all kind of materials in or around the building. And of course synchronized noise from different sources.
So i decided to go to my wife's work place at GE Security at 12345 SW Leveton dr. Tualatin, OR. But i didn't park in her parking lot but in the street next to it i can't remember why. Truck was facing North and i opened the truck's bed's door and sat on it enjoying the Sun and trying to calm down. At around 3:15 PM i started to hear a noise like a waterfall. At first it was smaller and then it grew constantly bigger then i thought an earthquake is going to hit then i thought the whole Niagara falls is coming in that parking lot. But none of this happened. When the noise was right before its peak i saw an elegant gray big bird like silhouette coming from above the building from the South. Then another two. Then another one. Here they were. 4 F22s flying in V formation really slow at about 100-200 ft. I thought i saw pilot's helmets in the cockpits. I was staring at the bay doors under their bellies waiting to see what was going to happen next. They went above and passed towards North. I turned and saw their tails gently balancing just above the horizon with the stabilizers moving discretely. The whole show lasted about 30 seconds. Then they disappeared over horizon with the same speed and altitude. I didn't hear any noise like increasing speed ever after. They must have flown at that altitude over the whole area in that direction, many miles of urban area. Thousands of people might have seen and hear them.
I thought i was really lucky for not peeing in my pants. I went inside the truck trying to think. Then a guy passed by. I asked him if i just saw 4 F22s flying above my head. He said smiling: Something like that, something like that...
My wife showed up. She confirmed the noise. Then i went to the liquor store. I bought some grain alcohol to mix with the blueberries we picked at a upick place, a few days earlier.
At home two guys showed in the parking lot. One was holding a device in his hands like measuring something in the air. By that time i had a filter in the bedroom's door that was pushing filtered air and building a little pressure inside so no other things can get in. Not that they didn't. My wife said i should go and talk to them but i though i had enough emotions for one day.
I was joking with my wife, "we're broke but i just saw 1 billion dollars flying above our heads!"