Cool Video! Amazing Hexaflexagons!

Hexaflexagons.  What the heck is that?  I just saw this today on Discovery.com.  Maybe you've seen it before but it's really cool!  Watch and be amazed...

"Meaningful Work"!?

All you young people listen up!  Work can be hard but that's why it's called work and something else is called fun.  Thomas Sowell, one of my favorite opinion columnists, writes about the concept of "Meaningful Work".  Some would have you believe that all work should be somehow inspiring and deeply satisfying.  The reality is that there are many unsatisfying and difficult jobs that have to be done.  People will pay you to do these jobs and they won't seem very meaningful.  But these kinds of jobs are often stepping stones to a better life.  They teach us lessons about working because we need to make money to support ourselves and the ones we love.  Sometimes we need a job like this just to survive.  There's honor in that and these kinds of jobs encourage us to seek better things in life!  Remember that when your job gets under your skin.

Read Sowell's essay on "Meaningful Work" (via realclearpolitics.com).  It's a good life lesson.

Great BBQ Story for My Smokin' Friends.....

....it's about great BBQ legends from Texas (ugh!) and it's from Texas Monthly magazine (ugh, again!) but it's worth a read nonetheless...if you fancy yourself a smokin' ace that is!!

Of Meat and Men

Remembering on Memorial Day, A Singular Image...

Today is Memorial Day 2012 and this story, As Memorial Day Nears, A Singular Image That Continues to Haunt, by Lily Burana in The New York Times reminds us of the meaning of this sacred day.  Please take time to go and read it!.(via Instapundit and Blackfive)

Today please pray for and remember those who serve and those who died for America!



                     

What's blooming in my yard today?

Took some photos of things flowering on the grounds of the Ponderosa today.  But first, a little commentary.

My rose garden was attacked by thrips.  They were eating my blooms so I sprayed them last week and that put a stop to the little monsters.  Other than that the rose garden looks great right now. There's a big flush of blooms.  This is the second year for most of my rose bushes and they're really coming on strong.  The first year you plant them they grow and bloom but they really start producing in the second season.  I still need more red roses.  I have lots of yellow, orange and purple.  Not enough red.

The clematis is sprawling all over the ground by the back deck.  I need to transplant it under a trellis.  Maybe later this year although I've said that for the last two years.

Saturday I went to my favorite local nursery and bought three beautiful shrubs.  I planted my favorite Saturday afternoon, a beautiful lavender rhododendrum.  It's my newest baby!  Boy is it beautiful right next to the front step.

The gold iris was given to me by my son-in-law's mom.  She dug them up and asked him to bring them to me.  They are a great golden, lavender color.

The grounds here at the Harder Estate are looking pretty good right now.  Spending a fair amount of time watering so rain would be appreciated.

Hope you enjoy the pics.....

Simplicity Pink Shrub Rose

Red Double Knock-Out Rose

Sangria Rose

Monkey Business Rose

Catawbiense Grandiflorum Rhododendrum

Blue Clematis (variety unknown)

Gold Iris (Variety Unknown)

Watering the Rose Garden

The God Complex...making good mistakes...

Here's an excellent TED talk.  If you've never visited TED, it's a website with lots of videos of interesting symposium style monologues.  Great speakers and interesting ideas.

I saw this one via the Ace of Spades HQ blog which is one of my favorite blogs (warning:  if Ace were a movie I would rate it a PG-13)  Anyway lots of good and sometimes funny commentary there.

This video is about the so-called "God Complex". The Wikipedia definition for God complex is as follows:

"A god complex is an unshakable belief characterized by consistently inflated feelings of personal ability, privilege, or infallibility. A person with a god complex may refuse to admit the possibility of error or failure, even in the face of complex or intractable problems or difficult or impossible tasks, or may regard personal opinions as unquestionably correct^] The individual may disregard the rules of society and require special consideration or privileges^"


Our culture is rife with the kind of thinking outlined here.  In my opinion, it's a dangerous trend that especially describes our science and politics.  As an engineer, I learned a long time ago that you have to be very careful about making absolute statements.  Even when we know that "the science is settled" there are still times when we miss some small detail which changes the entire calculus of a situation.  Life is lived as a series of probabilities.  For many things the probabilities are so high that we can live as if they are certainties.  But in this day and time too many of what we are told are certainties are less probable than their advocates proclaim.  Examples of this in modern culture include global warming, economics, social science, education and even health care.


If you're old enough to vote I especially urge you to watch this video and keep it in mind as we journey through the current political cycle:

A Spring Day at the Ponderosa.....

Spent Saturday planting flowers with Baxter and Gabby.   Ahhh, springtime in South Carolina.  Here are some pics of my day....

I have several big, beautiful dogwoods here on the Ponderosa.  The three shown in this photo are my favorites. They've obviously been here for a long time and it was like finding hidden treasure when we cleared the property for the house and discovered these beautiful trees.  I've named them "The Three Sisters" because they grew up at the same time and they're so close.  You can easily see the first on the right of this photo.  The second is in the middle behind the corner of the front porch.  The third is kind of hard to see in the edge of the woods just left of the second sister.  They're absolutely gorgeous every year.  God's magnificent creation plays out every spring when they bloom.  Here's are a couple of close-ups of some of the second and third sisters' blooms....

Here's a better shot of the first sister.....

Oh, and Baxter was his usual helpful self....

Gabby exhausted herself and found a quiet place to take a break....

Yardwork for Cats

Planted eight geraniums Janna bought at the Woodmont High plant sale.  Those ag students and teachers grow some pretty plants....

It's pretty so that's enough for now.  More on my Saturday yardwork later.  Hope you enjoy the photos.