IntelligentStandards.com

Turning the corner...

One of the things that annoys me about the Bush administration: We are forever "almost there" - whether it's the turning point in the war in Iraq, the economy, or - you name it. I drew this up back in 2004 when the economy and the job market were at best a mixed bag of indicators. Today in 2007, the market is reeling from defaults on mortgages in the sub-prime sector. Brought on no doubt in part by over-selling of ARMs and other perhaps unscrupulous lending practices, but also in part because the improving economy isn't reaching everyone. I'm sorry, but the rising tide just doesn't lift all boats.

The Intelligent Design Wedge

Sorry, but I see "Intelligent Design" and "irreducible Complexity" concepts as rather flimsy arguments from a scientific perspective. Not following any sort of scientific method that I can see, they look more like an attempt to masquerade religious explanations on the origin of life as a valid scientific theory. So far, the theory of evolution is the best thing we've got going.

Larry King

Nothing to see here but a silly little sketch of Larry King. You'll never be Somebody until you've appeared on Larry King.

The way it isn't

A poke at Dan Rather and CBS's 'thorough 2004 investigations' into 'authentic' proof of George W. Bush's service - or lack thereof - in the National Guard. Very sloppy work on the part of CBS, methinks. What must Walter Cronkite think?

"Kerry Oki"

John Kerry covers Bill Clinton's greatest hits in karaoki - something I drew up back when John Kerry was running for the 2004 Democratic nomination and trying to point out how much better things were with a Democrat in the Whitehouse. Personally, I found that I liked John Kerry much better after the election was over than during the race. The same was true for Bob Dole in 1996.

Not much to see (or say here)... just some random political (poorly drawn) doodles that ended up striking me funny.

First "real" post - here are some words to live by. There'll be more. If only everyone would master and internalize the following, OH what a wonderful world this would be.

• Live better by keeping the "good" things in your life while cutting the bad things out of your life. The trick is learning to tell them apart.
• Just keep smiling.
• Eschew obfuscation.
• Your freedoms end where mine begin - and vice versa.

There are few things I get more enjoyment out of more than the ornamental water garden in my backyard. This winter I built an above-ground water garden near my house. I learned a lot along the way and plan to build another one in the (hopefully) not too distant future.

I didn't take as many photos along the way as I probably should have, but some here are some to give you an idea of the scale. Here's the "before' picture. Note the rather vacant and empty gravel area at the lower right of the photo near my new deck:

My 8 year-old son had seen a water garden at the local rock business where we bought the gravel (for under the deck) and immediately wanted a water garden of his own. My wife and I kicked the idea around and decided to make a water garden as part birthday present (for my son) and part family present.

Several trips to the quarry and the local home improvement store later, we had ourselves a nice little above-ground pond which blends nicely into the natural look and feel of our back yard. The result is shown below:

Once we got the water in and circulating, we added some inexpensive gold fish (and later rose-head minnows), and some water plants. This is how it looked in this spring (2007)

Closer views:

It's been a brutal summer here in Georgia, but the water garden is doing great. The plants shown here have literally exploded... That little plant inside the 'circle of rocks' in the center of that last photo is nothing more than impatiens. That little plant has grown huge now.

But my water iris hasn't done anything really and the lilly pads are just pads - no lillies. If anyone knows how to make them bloom, I would love to hear from you.

-Dave

9/8/07 update:

While other plants in the landscape have been wilting badly, checkout the white impatiens that I planted in my water garden in the spring:

Another view

As you can see, the impatiens are taking over the pond while other marginals (water iris) are pretty much doing nothing. The large white flowery bush near the waterfall all comes from the single plant shown in the spring photo.
I think next year I'll skip most of the fancy water plants and go straight to the impatiens. They work great as marginals, provide a lot of shade (to keep the water temperatures down), and are fierce bloomers.