The Art of Predicting the Weather

Today I was taking a break with a coworker and I asked if he had ridden his bike into work today. He said that he had and asked if I thought it would rain. I replied that it was very likely we would get rain this afternoon and in fact I felt that it could be storming shortly. It had been warm and sunny all day with scattered clouds but they were starting to build a bit. National Weather Service had posted a 10% chance for showers and thunderstorms.

I am Oglala Lakota and I get asked about weather all the time. Some even ask if I do rain dances and such. NO Lakotas were hunter gatherers, not farmers, so rainfall, although important, was not so important as to create a ceremony to encourage its arrival. I usually respond to this by saying, "If I want to make it rain I just wash my car."

When I was 5 years old I was struck by lightning. From my point of view it was not much of a big deal. I was inside a building in Stillwater MN and holding onto the door when a bolt hit the structure. I did not see or hear anything other than a woman in a red dress, who was also holding onto an other, door fly backwards. My mother and others around me reported that sparks flew from my hands as I was blown off my feet to land flat on my back.

An event such as this has great significance with Lakota people. I have not only dreamed of but been touched by wakinyanpi, thunder beings. Those that dream of or are touched by the wakinyanpi usually become Heyoka, sacred clowns. Heyoka are considered very powerful and some people even fear them. One of the primary characteristics of a Heyoka is that they do everything backwards and act out the ridiculousness of situations. They are carnival mirrors that reflect everything back in an exaggerated and reversed way. I am not a Heyoka, I have chosen to not follow that path. I am however severely right left dyslexic. I do not know if the lightning strike caused it but It could be a factor.

I can not control the weather. I can not make it rain or storm on command but I think I understand weather. I know that lightning and thunder is not created by a giant bird but charged particles in the atmosphere and that the heat generated by the resulting spark creates thunder. It is fascinating stuff but rather dry, the idea of wakinyanpi is more fun. I understand weather because I have taken the time to observe it.

Not only do we rush around so much that we do not pay attention but we also seal ourselves away from the world in our houses and cars. We rely on the news or radio to get our weather reports. It has been a about 45 minutes since my friend asked me about rain, the sky is now dark. A look at the local weather site shows the storms building over the mountains to the west and moving North East. It is not raining yet but it is only a matter of time.

Anyone can learn the weather. Go outside spend a few minutes take note of how the air feels, what direction the wind is from, the temperature, what direction are the clouds moving? If you pay attention you will learn the patterns of weather. No one is right 100% of the time and you can also use the national weather reports.... How does the map look today? Has it ever looked like that before? To know the weather you must observe it, feel it, and remember it. Before long you to can give the meteorologists a personal run for the money.

The Must Watch List.......

We all have one. It is Saturday afternoon, you have your chores done and you sit down with a frosty beverage and a snack, flip on the TV and see what is on. Now that we have cable, satellite TV and even Internet TV we have hundreds of channels to watch, what makes you stop going through the list?

I am not talking about "OH we will watch this later" but what movie or movies cause you to stop in your tracks?

For me I have two movies that are must watch under any circumstances. I think my house could catch fire and I would just sit there and burn to death before getting out of the chair or couch, so great is the need to watch these films.

The first film is Hunt for Red October. I have no idea why this film captivates me so. I am not a particular fan of submarine movies or of Sean Connery. I can shrug off Crimson Tide or a Bond Film. I do not care if it is just the last 15 minutes. I have to watch it, nothing else in the universe matters to me but ooooo Hunt for Red October is on.

Hunt for Red October seems to go into heavy rotation on TNT or TBS. I am not sure which station, I do not care, I am watching Hunt for Red October.

The other movie is Backdraft. Once again I have no real affinity for the cast, even though it is excellent. I also like Towering Inferno, but that is not a drop everything and go all slack jawed and drooly when I see it on my guide listing. Backdraft also seems to get heavy play on the secondary movie channels.

The real funny thing is that I do not own either of these films of DVD. I did own Red October but was forced to sell it, I have never owned a copy of Backdraft.

Do any of you have Must Watch movies?

How to completely annoy your friends on facebook

This is not another post about the popular privacy issues regarding facebook. It is a rule that anything posted online is public in one way or another and there is no way to ensure or even assume privacy. This is a post about a more insidious facebook issue, that of applications.

I joined facebook through my employer, my company wanted everyone on facebook so I jumped in. I like facebook as a way to contact and interact with friends, family, and co workers. It does have its useful purposes. However the signal to noise ratio on Facebook is distressing. I have to hide multiple applications and game every day or my homepage is filled with.

I found a lost calf on farmville -
Please help me build a what-the-hell-ever on farmville -
I have 100 million billion coins in treasure hunt -
I have signed up to get a free iPad, how about you -
I got a galactic high score in plug my bung hole -
I am attacking the castle, come have fun with me -
so and so sent you an electric walrus polisher send him something back -
here is my horoscope for today -

I know the games are fun. I played mob wars for about a month or so and had a good time. I am sure that I also annoyed my facebook friends with constant updates on my moby activities. Today I got an update "so and so is at Walgreen's, tell all your friends where you are using foursquare" Oh good for you, and why do I care?

Now to facebooks credit you can click on hide and hide the application but once I do that I have found that a suddenly do not hear anything from more than half of my friends. I love facebook for sharing information or pictures or fun videos, but the game and gift applications are way out of control.

The other scourge of facebook is the pre made updates. "Dog breath is a major problem in dogs. If your dog has dog breath or a dog that you know has dog breath please copy and paste this as your status. 90% of you will not copy and paste this message so if you care about your dog's breath please post it for an hour." News flash; if 90% of facebook users will not put your "lets increase awareness of dog breath" message as their status, it is probably for a reason. If you really want to increase awareness or help fight something, a facebook status is not going to help out. A facebook status update is not going to give your dog minty fresh breath, nor will it cure brest cancer, or AIDs in Africa. There are ways to combat these things that have real value.

I try and follow some rules regarding my use of facebook.

1. If I am playing a game and want to post updates, I post those updates to friends who also play the game. My friends who play Farmville will be more interested in my lost calf. You can do that, it takes a bit of work.

2. I try and make my status updates my own. Yea a lot of people may shrug their shoulders and go "I don't care" but at least it is my status update.

3. I try and not use facebook as a political or social platform. I do not like being scolded or preached to. I try and not do it to others.

Facebook should be fun and we all use facebook in different ways and for different purposes. I do not want to annoy people least of all my friends and coworkers. If I do or say something on facebook that ticks you off, let me know.