bigbonton

Living mini-large circa Summer 2011

2011-08-27T21:31:37Z

There is a new normal hitting us where we live. It's new but it seems very familiar.
Keep on keeping on? Nothing new to me, just call that "life".
But we've had so much going on... and it ain't all what we've prayed for either... but we've gotten a lot without asking, too.

When I can come in from the garden, have some ice water, rub some wintergreen alcohol on the fresh bug bites, and review this mini-bounty, well, the new phrase of 2011 is "it's not all I want but I'll take it."

I have a lot to be thankful for, such as my hyper-individual unique character that came from challenges and adversities that others never had to face, as well as all those things that came naturally. I don't take much for granted.

When multiple smart people, acting independantly, all use the same phrase, it's likely a valued observation. Specifically, my family has been observed by many to be "unusually happy." Not lucky, not one way or the other. "Unusually happy."

Getting philosophical is like having a strong sense of humor - it's taking the long view.
For every thing there is a season and a time for every purpose under Heaven.
Been a good day and I'll sleep well tonight. Hope the mosquitoes sleep all night too... Last night this one . . . oh never mind.

tomatoes 2011

2011-08-21T21:28:06Z

These were handed to me with two hands the size and toughness of baseball gloves.
Big, tough, brown, and nice, like summer fun.

“Sorry about the wrinkles,” he said. “They say these are the real ones. Called heirlooms, they’re special, the real ones.”

His field is past Whale Branch between Lobeco and Pocataligo and Tomately. Great place names, eh?

True love, pride - the good kind of pride that is more about pride in work and results, not ego of self.
Healthy hard work, not toil but labor to build, create, make something from nothing.
Cleansing sweat, water, and fresh produce.

These tomatoes don’t grow on trees! You gotta make the ground make em.
The Lord helps those who help themselves
You take one step He’ll take two.

The blog – where did it come from?

2011-08-19T20:48:11Z

Bigbonton is a blog site, full of fun, interesting and random posts. Here we see some a freaky photo of a raven and even an unusual double growth apple. Blogs are a great opportunity to upload and share information with people across the world about all matter of things. The advantage of having your own blog, is that anything you find interesting can be posted online, without the need to link to anything else on your site. But who first thought of blogs? And how have they progressed?

Most blog entries are uploaded regularly, which maintains the readers interest and keeps the website up to date. Blog posts can range in all types of writing styles, including reviews, news, discussions, graphics and videos. Blogs are interactive, allowing readers to add their comments, much like a forum. These are popular amongst hotel review forums, where potential customers read comments from previous holiday makers and are able to post their own comments. Forums are useful ways of getting advice on gaming sites like http://www.partycasino.com/ or reading tips on the best places to visit while you are on vacation. As you can see, blogs are very vast, which means almost anybody can relate to them.

A blog's most distinguishing factor, is the fact that it is constantly adapting and being updated. Unlike most static websites, blogs are always developing. It is estimated that 156 million people own blogs worldwide. It was back in 1997 when the 'weblog' name was created, however, this was soon shortened to just 'blog' which was used as a noun and a verb by Evan Williams. He used it as a describing word for editing or posting on ones weblog.

Before blogs were official, people used to use online diaries. This is where people kept an ongoing account of their life events, writers of these blogs used to refer to themselves as diarists or journalists. In the late nineties, blogging became more popular, which lead to the arrival of the first hosted blogs which included pages such as blogger.com, which was bought by Google.

Apple Inside

2010-10-26T01:55:04Z

This autumn the indy gentry ruralites find apple peelers to be all the rage.
We’re not impressed. We’re so jaded genuine, nothing is new to us. We’re just eating fresh like Mamma showed us, before fresh eating got called localvore by the Johnny come lately foodies.
But one Monday morning a pairing knife cut us a double take to our core.

If you peel off this peeling and you find a new peeling.
What manner of double apple is this?

And so we posted the discovery. Now we await a communiqué from world food dominator Monsanto, expecting their claim to “neither affirm nor deny” having a hand in this bi-peel pomme, anticipating that they’ll attack this post as patent infringement or a wiki-leak of their master plan to dominate food to the core!

We’re not food scientists, we’re not even foodies. We’re just good eaters trying to make a morning smoothie. A Monday morning smoothie, with one Granny Smith and one - whatever this morphed or genetically modified or mutated apple is called. REDX2?

There is an apple inside this apple!
Is this a bonus or another sign of the apocalypse?

Eat Off the Floor

2010-06-07T16:40:39Z

The latest trendiest epicurean experience involves being a local-vore while demonstrating how pristine yet down-to-earth one is.
To document the result, here's a photo of our chic culinary experience at Chez Tile, circa Summer 2010.

* Local baby tomatoes - chosen for their ability to best represent their field. These particular ones are in their 95th percentile.

* Bread - starts doughy but when baked and brushed with butter it becomes brown crispness. A metamorphosis reminiscent of a Japanese tea service.

* Cheese - it's cheese, not Kraft "cheese-food" and since it's melted, it's good. Nuff said.

* Beer – embodiment of the Czech notion of "liquid bread."

* Water – now we're getting into the elite-ness of the moment... this water is from the tap. Why is tap water this season’s mod barometer? Oh, don’t be so last week. If we must explain the obvious, read on.

* The plate is on the floor of a simulated bathroom.
Again, I said, the food is served on what represents a bathroom floor.
Why? Because it's all so well cared for that “you can eat off the floor.” Voila, here's your proof.
The Chef has taken the old phrase and acted on it, brought it to life for us to enact.
Are you sold on it? Don't be left out.
Sit on the tile floor (on a towel) and act bored with this season’s new black, the au courant chic culinary experience, circa Summer 2010.

Gulf Oil, interactive map of

2010-05-17T03:31:47Z

How much oil is in the Gulf (so far)?

This interactive map will bring it home to you.
Using Hilton Head Island as a center, the surface oil slick covers a precious amount of irreplaceable beauty:

Nothing funny about this post.
Big oil, big money, Wall Street.
They have p0wned us.
Every which way.

We the pwned people,
of the United States of America,
in order to form a more perfect union,
and so on.

Click and see a map of what it'd look like in, on, and all over your neck of the woods.
Sad. Such a waste.

iPad Nano - exclusive first

2010-04-02T00:58:48Z

Your bigbonton.org operatives at One Infinite Loop (the Apple Inc. HQ) have exclusive proofiness of the next Apple product. Our corporate spies used their iPhones to capture and smuggle these images so bigbonton fans can be the first to see:

The pre-release iPad Nano.
Based on the magical and revolutionary Apple iPad - and now it’s smaller!

The image above (dated 04/01/2010) shows the actual iPad Nano workbench.

The beta iPad Nano on the bottom of the image (code named “Three-Alarm”) shows the glow of a lithium-ion hotspot due to battery heat within its ultra-compact housing.
The beta iPad Nano on the top of the image (code named “the Chillaxant”) is cool to the touch, even set in its revolutionary “HD-Backlite” mode.
“The Three-Alarm was just too compact,” lamented one of many Apple designers with the scorched cargo shorts to document how hot a battery can get when in-pocket.

One of the first things you’ll notice about the iPad Nano is how thin and light it is.

“Whether you’re coming or going, our iPad Nano responds to a flick, a press, or in parts of the Southern USA, a mash of a button. The iPad Nano is unlike anything you’ve mashed before, standing or sitting.”
- Apple.com website copy (edited for artistic parody)

What makes the iPad nano even better? Accessories!

Here’s an amazing iPad nano holder that’s built into an everyday article of clothing:

Magically seamless!

God Bless Steve Jobs!
Feb 24, 2010 was the 54th birthday of Steve Jobs.
Hey Steve! I remembered… next year I’ll try to be more prompt in my greetings. Please understand I couldn’t write earlier, had to keep a low profile to protect our bigbonton.org operatives inside One Infinite Loop.
Cool Toys! Cool Tools! Keep ‘em coming.
This post was MADE ON A MAC.
One more time, all together now, “God Bless Steve Jobs!”

Still want to rave on more about Apple and Steve Jobs? Click, you got it.

Spring 2010 and "Daffodils" (1804)

2010-03-06T23:06:52Z

Saw a dozen round bellied robins the other day.
One of them was really getting him some bugs.
They were all hopping and darting in the sun and leaves, making a good lunch from the bugs, grubs, and whatnots that have come up since the ground thawed.

The daffodils are in bloom rather suddenly - seems like last week they weren't even sprouts. But it's like that each springtime, always a pleasant surprise. Just like last year and the year before that, on back to 1804 and beyond.

Decent photos, but it's just a half-effort attempt because the real deal is this wonderful visual, "beside the lake, beneath the trees, fluttering and dancing in the breeze."
The inward eye, led by Wordsworth, trumps iPhoto, no contest. We all win:

"Daffodils" (1804)

I WANDER'D lonely as a cloud
That floats on high o'er vales and hills,
When all at once I saw a crowd,
A host, of golden daffodils;

Beside the lake, beneath the trees,
Fluttering and dancing in the breeze.
Continuous as the stars that shine
And twinkle on the Milky Way,
They stretch'd in never-ending line
Along the margin of a bay:

Ten thousand saw I at a glance,
Tossing their heads in sprightly dance.
The waves beside them danced; but they
Out-did the sparkling waves in glee:

A poet could not but be gay,
In such a jocund company:
I gazed -- and gazed -- but little thought
What wealth the show to me had brought:

For oft, when on my couch I lie
In vacant or in pensive mood,
They flash upon that inward eye
Which is the bliss of solitude;
And then my heart with pleasure fills,
And dances with the daffodils.

By William Wordsworth (1770-1850).

# # # # # # # # # # # # # #

Lucky Lindsey Jacobellis

2010-02-17T15:44:50Z

Starting with the 2006 Winter Olympics, aka the XX Olympic Winter Games, cut to the 2010 Olympiad, flashback to the Low Tatras, Italian and Austrian Alps, then we sing:

She's an athlete, a trooper, and what a snowboarder.

In 2006, coming into the home stretch of the snowboardcross (which is like a roller derby down the mountain), Lindsey was way out front with her gold medal almost around her neck.
On the last jump before the podium she got more-than-called-for air and she did this method grab (above) just because it felt right.

She wiped out and went from Gold to goat.
Watch the grab but note how fast she got up and back into the race:

She was so far out front that she could wipe out and still came in second, yet the benchwarmers and the Monday morning press had a field day, such as, “Jacobellis settled for a silver medal and was labeled a showboat after her mishap.”

For four years she has been asked about “the grab” and her answer is always the same,
“I was snowboarding and I did a snowboard move and I fell. I fell, it's just a part of boarding."

Can't ya just see her shrugging it off?
I fell, it's all a part of the game.

Now, in the 2010 Olympic Winter Games snowboardcross, Lucky Lindsey Jacobellis took a jump higher than her opponents, didn’t plant it well and skidded out of bounds. It was over for her. This time getting up didn't matter, her race was done - out of bounds meant game over.

Afterwards Lindsey said,
“I just landed a little front-footed. I feel OK, though.
Sometimes, you can't control the things you want to.
That's how it goes in boardcross."

When I learned to snowboard (Burton Snowboards!),
one line from The Pretenders kept playing in my head:
“We fall but we keep getting up.
Over and over and over and over and over and over…”

Full lyrics from “Message of Love” by The Pretenders:

]]> Now the reason we're here
as man and woman
is to love each other
take care of each other

when love walks in the room
everybody stand up
oh it's good, good, good
like brigitte bardot

Now look at the people
in the streets, in the bars
we are all of us in the gutter
but some of us are looking at the stars

look round the room
life is unkind
we fall but we keep gettin' up
over and over and over and over and over and over

Me and you, every night, every day
we'll be together always this way
your eyes are blue like the heavens above
talk to me darlin' with a message of love

Now the reason we're here
every man, every woman
is to help each other
stand by each other
when love walks in the room
everybody stand up
oh it's good, good good

say i love you, i love you, i love you, i love you, i love you, i love you
Talk to me darlin' Talk to me darlin'

the iPad

2010-02-01T21:44:32Z

funny video, well done
but it takes a moment to load...
wait for it...wait for it...

there ain't no flies on me

2009-11-09T18:31:08Z

This is one of the few turkeys to see the sunrise the day after Thanksgiving.
His name is Jake, as in Jake Turkey. More original than naming him Tom.
Turkey Jake has his namesake from an old man with a saggy neck waddle. Human Jake didn’t seem to mind the saggy comparison, although I wonder if he is crying inside or if to him it's all water off a ducks back or maybe saggy human Jake no longer feels emotions…

Old gray turkey Jake is old, even by fowl standards. He’s older than most of the human offspring playing in the yard and has outlived all of his fowl contemporaries. Consequently, Jake has been granted a permanent pardon from ever being considered as sustenance. Smart decision for all, especially since this old bird must be one tough old bird to have escaped the dinner preparation neck-ax, survived nightly raccoon raids, and avoided road and farm vehicles up to November 2007.

As a tangible example of an homage to elders, we sent Jake off to the farm. Meaning the real farm, not the “farm” as in that euphemism for the chopping block and then the carving plate.

Old Jake has not yet “bought the farm” here.
Look closely and there’s a dog in the bottom right of the photo. She's a nice Boykin Spaniel, not likely to agitate the old bird.

Jake is more likely to see tomorrow than many of us, especially if we don’t learn to mend our wicked, wicked ways and remember to say "Yessum" to the ladies, and "Yessur" to the men.
Which leads us to:
“Most all the time, the whole year round,
there ain't no flies on me,
But jest'fore Christmas I'm as good as I kin be! “

Click below for wise insight on
just how to behave “Jest 'fore Christmas” according to Eugene Field (1850-1895).

]]> "Jest 'Fore Christmas"
by Eugene Field (1850-1895)

Father calls me William, sister calls me Will,
Mother calls me Willie but the fellers call me Bill!
Mighty glad I ain't a girl---ruther be a boy,
Without them sashes curls an' things that's worn by Fauntleroy!
Love to chawnk green apples an' go swimmin' in the lake--
Hate to take the castor-ile they give for belly-ache!
'Most all the time, the whole year round, there ain't no flies on me,
But jest'fore Christmas I'm as good as I kin be!

Got a yeller dog named Sport, sick him on the cat.
First thing she knows she doesn't know where she is at!
Got a clipper sled, an' when us kids goes out to slide,
'Long comes the grocery cart, an' we all hook a ride!
But sometimes when the grocery man is worrited an' cross,
He reaches at us with his whip, an' larrups up his hoss,
An' then I laff an' holler, "Oh, ye never teched me!"
But jest'fore Christmas I'm as good as I kin be!

Gran'ma says she hopes that when I git to be a man,
I'll be a missionarer like her oldest brother, Dan,
As was et up by the cannibals that live in Ceylon's Isle,
Where every prospeck pleases, an' only man is vile!
But gran'ma she has never been to see a Wild West show,
Nor read the life of Daniel Boone, or else I guess she'd know
That Buff'lo Bill an' cowboys is good enough for me!
Excep' jest 'fore Christmas, when I'm as good as I kin be!

And then old Sport he hangs around, so solemn-like an' still,
His eyes they seem a-sayin': "What's the matter, little Bill?"
The old cat sneaks down off her perch an' wonders what's become
Of them two enemies of hern that used to make things hum!
But I am so perlite an' tend so earnestly to biz,
That mother says to father: "How improved our Willie is!"
But father, havin' been a boy hisself, suspicions me
When, jest 'fore Christmas, I'm as good as I kin be!

For Christmas, with its lots an' lots of candies, cakes an' toys,
Was made, they say, for proper kids an' not for naughty boys;
So wash yer face an' bresh yer hair, an' mind yer p's and q's,
And don't bust out yer pantaloons, and don't wear out yer shoes;
Say "Yessum" to the ladies, and "Yessur" to the men,
An' when they's company, don'a pass yer plate for pie again;
But, thinkin' of the things yer'd like to see upon that tree,
Jest 'fore Christmas be as good as yer kin be!

Raven and full moon

2009-10-20T18:34:00Z

Happy Halloween 2005
Not a scary image but it has all the components:
raven, full moon, remote coastal town (think of Hitchcocks "the Birds").

Maybe it's not creepy due to blue sky, the lone bird is just hanging out, and I was in a great mood when I took this photo. The cool vibe of a Spring Sunday afternoon walk overpowers any Halloween macabre.
Was hiking along the Northern California coast in Point Reyes National Seashore.
One of my favorite places in the world, Point Reyes includes Limontour Beach where the waves break with a perfect sound. Each wave is a shorebreak; the sets surge in with a whoosh and a noticeable whoomp. They often have an air pocket trapped in the tube that blurps out with a whale or porpoise breaching sound.
On the north end of Limontour sea lions are laying about, on the south end are waterfalls from the cliffs, running directly into the Pacific.
Kite surfing, horses, beach bonfires, isolation.
Now that's a nice beach, eh?

Manure Basics

2009-09-19T22:15:00Z

What will you do for your Saturday Bull Session?
Figuratively shoot the bull or literally spread the manure?
Decisions decisions . . . .

There's even a flower on the bag! Now that's good marketing!

Reduce, reuse, re-purpose, repair, recycle

2009-09-13T19:45:33Z

Alan Greenspan, my man! What a wonderful season we had, back at the turn of the century.
Irrational exuberance + time
= that's the way the cookie crumbles.

Add the realization that ice cream melts, and suddenly life ain't easy.
Lucky for the label-heads and status-needy among us, we're deep into a trend of green-ness.
Reduce, reuse, re-purpose, repair, recycle is not in recession, it's in vogue.
See the fun beauty found in found art:

Feel free to claim your scrimping belt tightening isn't because you are now poor, it's because you're trendy! Join the green sustainable club, be faddish. Reduce, reuse, re-purpose, repair, recycle.

Hard candy Christmas this year? "Sufficient for the day are the troubles thereof," so let's just see if Mama's Little Baby can make it through Thanksgiving without shredded newspaper in a turkey-shaped meat-loaf. Don't knock it, it's high in fiber and loaded with highbrow Steinbeck literary references. [uh-oh, is Steinbeck highbrow? Um, no. Literary genius does not equal highbrow.]

Halloween will be easier, it comes with built-in excuses for otherwise embarrassing actions. Prepare yourself for the economic nadir with a trip to the thrift store - claim to be looking for a funky Halloween ensemble. Act now because after Oct. 31st the gig is up, you'll just be shopping in a thrift store without an excuse.

Or just go hobo. Grow a beard (razors cost money). Oh! Go beat, 2009 is looking so beatnik. Be a beat hobo beatnik cat. A beret and fingerless gloves? Dig it, but not just on Oct 31st, go-hobo, be-beat and drop outwardness until macro-means catch up with micro-ways.

Alan Greenspan sez: "I found a flaw in the modeling structure in how the world works.
I made a mistake in presuming that organizations, banks specifically, are not as protective to the long term survival of their structures as might be expected."

Tell me about it. The corporation has no mind. Or heart or soul. Just add human greed and the awareness that you're leading something considered "too big to fail" and, "Oops! Sorry 'bout that, bail me out Uncle Sammy."

Don't think twice, it's alright

2009-08-17T19:52:47Z

Sometimes I sits and thinks, and sometimes I just sits.
- Satchel Paige

First read that quote on an 8.5x11 paper
on the wall in English class.
Liked it then. Living it now.

"Been sittin' here thinkin' back over my life
All of the good things, and trouble and strife
Felt my share of heartache, so many I've had
Still think the good things outweigh the bad"
- Flatt and Scruggs, "Good Things (Outweight the Bad)"

Listen to the June Bugs rev up their hypnotic hind legs and wonder about . . .
what, why, if, how about, and the ever-fresh WTF!
We'd have better answers if we had the right questions.
No insights from out here at the Cypress Knee, just getting better and better at sitting still.
Sitting and thinking never was a problem but it has led to some sticky situations, not all of which were unpleasant...

"Sittin, drinkin, superficially thinkin
About the rinsed-out blonde on my left
She was pretty, flirty
Looked about thirty
Would have run away but I was on my own
Said my my my, like a spider to a fly
Jump right ahead in my web!"
- The Rolling Stones, "The Spider and the Fly"