Response to Crater Lake (My Research Project)

I have an interesting observation that I would like to share about my research topic on Crater Lake. Showing above is Wizard Island; an island on the west end of Crater Lake. Wizard Island is what remained after the ancient eruption about 7,700 years ago when in was Mount Mazama. Take a look at the island for a second. What does it look like? Yes, it looks like an arrowhead from an Indian spear. I share this because Crater Lake is also part of an culture called the Klamath and Modec Indian Tribes. Back in the mid to late nineteenth century, these tribes protected Crater Lake because it was a sacred place. The Klamath and Modec Indians believed that ancient spirits lived deep inside the lake and would terrorize anyone who stepped near it. The Indians that did seek Crater Lake never came back because the spirits would engulf them. The arrow head island, Wizard Island, must be a connection between the spirits of Crater Lake and the Indians. While doing my research, I did come across another belief of how Crater Lake became to be. Instead of the eruption 7,700 years ago, it is believed that two spirits, The Chief of the Overworld and Chief of the Underworld battled which caused a massive explosion of Mount Mazama. Interesting hey? My beliefs are that what was left over from this battle was Wizard Island; a sign that this battle evidently took place.

Mental Map of the WOrld

I thought this map was cool. It sort of ties into what Dr. Dobson was taking about two weeks ago. Is geography fading away? This is a mental map of a college student of the world. Should it be better than this or not? I know it's a mental map, but look at South America and Europe. I ran across this to looking for a world map for another class,so I thought I would share.

A dog named Jupiter

I thought I would blog about my new roommate's dog named Jupiter. He is a male Jack Russell terrier about seven years of age and weighs about twenty pounds. I classify him as "one weird dog" because of all things I have seen him do that normally other dogs don't do.

Here are a list of things that I would consider abnormal from a dog:

1. Jupiter has his own bed in my roommate's bedroom, but sometimes he wants to make his own bed on my bed. He does not sleep like an ordinary dog and sleeps under the covers. When I go to sleep, he will crawl under the covers to go to sleep with his head poking out like us humans do.

2. He is always passing gas under the covers and I usually have to end up kicking him out of my room because it stinks so bad. Dog farts are far more worse than humans.

3. When Jupiter gets into a playful mood, he always thinks that his tail is a playing toy. I have sat there and watched him many of times going round and round into circles like it wasn't his tail at all.

4. I cannot take Jupiter anywhere in the car. Most dogs, after a while, will eventually lay down after being in the car for a while. Not Jupiter. He stands up in the front passenger seat all the time. Even when I come to a stop, slam on the breaks, or make sharp left and right turns, he crashes into the dash and cannot hold still. He still stands and you would think that eventually it would lead him to the back. Jupiter thinks he has a seat belt on or something.

5. Jupiter cries like I have never heard any other dog cry before. When I take him for a ride in my car, while running errands, I make a stop at a store and he starts to cry out load where the whole parking lot can hear. He cries and does not stop because he wants to get out also. On my way back, he is still doing it. This dog has one pair of vocals I have never heard of in my life.

Although Jupiter has these characteristics as an animal, I have grown attached to him the few months I have been living here with my roommate. I find alternate ways to try to break him out of these habits by discipline, but I am finding that doesn't work either because he just keeps doing these habits.

Mono Lake

On my way to down to the Lancaster, California, Antelope Valley for spring break, I decided to share one of the most beautiful landscapes overlooking Mono Lake along U.S. Highway 395. In between Bridgeport and Lee Vining, I pulled off on the side of the road to park and observed Mono Lake throughout the distance. The air smelt so fresh and I felt like it was paradise. The elevation is about 8,000 ft. before going into the Lee Vining Valley and you can see the town of Lee Vining from above. Of course, I have been through here many times and never managed to take pictures, so finally, I had that chance. And, it was flippin' cold and around 19 degrees that Saturday morning, March 22, at 830AM.

Eating Too Much

I decided to go out to eat last night at one of the best pizza places in town, Nu Yalk Pizza. This place, on the corner of Kietzke and Moana Lanes, serves their best New York style pizza with a choice of your toppings like Italian sausage, meatballs, pepperoni, garlic, mushrooms, peppers, and salami. The super thin style crust gives it the ultimate flavor of what a pizza should really taste like. As I ordered 2 slices of pizza, I enjoyed every minute of folding that pizza in half, like a sandwich, and eating it New York style with the grease dripping into my mouth. After eating the two slices of pizza, I could not figure out why I was still hungry. I mean, have you seen these slices? They are huge! About 2 slices would equal a whole small order of Dominos. After contemplating, I ordered my third slice, which was plain cheese, and ate every last bite of it. I really do not eat like this, but I was sure on a roll last night. Yesterday, I did eat cereal for breakfast and had a little corn beef and cabbage for lunch. I don't know what really got into me eating three slices of Nu Yalk pizza, but it sure was worth it and good. Nu Yalk Pizza also serves other Italian dishes such as spaghetti, lasagne, sandwiches and more! Check the menu out above.

Response to the reading on Sea and Survival

Figure 1. Sand dunes along the Florida panhandle.

Sand dunes are a natural phenomena that occur along beach shores, bay shores, and coastal inlets. This piece was written for the physical geographer to learn about how sand dunes are formed and the parts of the sand dunes that are protected and not protected by human landscapes. The author focuses on coastal regions of the Netherlands and the U.S. Atlantic primarily because these are flat regions. Sand dunes are used as protected barriers against natural storms and human landscapes have added to altering the shape, along with wave production and winds, in which cause some areas of the sand dune to become intolerable.

I think the author was trying to send a message to his readers that sand dunes are actually an important part of the natural, physical landscape. Not many people consider sand dunes important. They do protect from floods of coastal regions in some extent. Sand dunes, especially in two particular areas; the primary and secondary, are off limits and bridges are built over them for their protection. In other words, lets stop the building of homes over these sanes dunes and build further inland for more protection. In an event of a severe storm or hurricane, a house built on a sand dune is more likely to suffer maximum damage than if it were built more inland. There is a reason why the primary sand dunes are fenced off to keep out, to become a better protection barrier.

Check out these links for more pictures.

picasaweb.google.com/.../M1pKKpB1dpg79fFuGdi9Zg- Beaches along the Jacksonville, FL coast and Amelia Island.

Using the Network Analyst Extension in GIS

This is a cool extension in ArcView 9.2 where you can create your own dataset of a city. The program was introduced to me yesterday in my GIS class. There are so many things you can do to such as create your own drive time analysis, point to point routing, route directions, service area definition, shortest path, optimum route, closest facility, and an origin destination analysis. Check out these videos from the ESRI site to gain a little knowledge on it.

http://www.esri.com/flashmedia/na_drivedirect.swf

http://www.esri.com/flashmedia/networkana.swf

Coming Home to Eat

I did not quite make it to Crater Lake this weekend as stated in by last blog, but definitely next weekend for sure! I wanted to write a little about the book Coming Home to Eat on the first 75 pages I have read. I think this book is an interesting one so far. Nabhan talks about how many foods these days are processed in cans and it travels long distances before reaching our mouths. The comments he makes in the book about processed foods make you think a little before you take that next bite. Where did it come from? Is it fresh? No one realizes what they are putting into their mouths when eating. In my opinion, lots of people would like to eat healthier, but just don't have the time and energy to do it. So, they go with the quickest and the healthiest they can get fast. As in the book so far, who is going to take the time to make a vegetable garden? Maybe, when retired? As for me, I try to eat healthy, but find myself getting that quick bite or going out to eat because either I don't have time or I don't want to take the time to do it.

Sometimes Maps are Deceiving

I was looking at my medium scaled 2007 Rand McNally Road Atlas yesterday because I plan on taking a trip up to Crater Lake, Oregon this weekend. As I looked on the map, the distance did not seem so far. From Reno, starting on Highway 395 North, then turning onto California Highway 139 North to Highway 97 North and merging in with Oregon Highway 62 to Crater Lake, I only guessed it looked about 200 miles; a 3 to 4 hour ride. Later that Sunday afternoon, I went on the Internet to look up the distance on mapquest and it turned out to be 326 miles from Reno. A 3 to 4 hour drive just turned into a 6 to 7 hour ride! When looking at an atlas, who takes a measuring ruler or uses their fingers to get an approximate distance from using the scale bar on the map? I just use mapquest.

No reflectors in between highway lanes?

I have a thought about the highways here in Reno. I have noticed that there are no reflectors between lanes on all of the major highways. Is this because of the semi-arid dry climate that we live in? While I was driving in this past Saturday night's snowstorm, those reflectors would of helped. I was driving in the middle of the lane for most and could hardly see if I was in the lane. Anyone else feel this way? Yes, Reno is in the rain shadow, but we do still get rain and snow throughout the year. Even though Reno does not get downpours of rain like the east coast, particularly Florida, reflectors between lanes should be on the highways. Safety on the roads should always be a main issue!

Response to Studies in Utah Vernacular Architecture

This piece was an interesting piece for me. Utah is really, truly a different landscape. It basically talked about the Mormon landscape and how they shaped Utah. The human landscapes are composed of elements like ethnic buildings and culture. The Mormons had a certain way of living; in small agricultural towns for solely communication purposes. They adapted their township and range on a grid iron town plan different from other U.S. cities. The landscape consisted of brick and stone houses, irrigation ditches, and hay derricks. One thought that comes to my mind when reading this piece is the famous J.B. Jackson and his studies on vernacular landscape. Has J.B. Jackson done research on Utah vernacular landscape? Carter talks about other works of studying the landscape in Utah, but even that's not enough because there are still other landscapes out there left to research. More field studies need to be accomplished for further research. For example, studies never were conducted on the contemporary Mormon home. Maybe this should be further study for J.B. Jackson since he is a vernacular landscape guru.

Response to Land Use Dynamics beyond the American Urban Fringe

David Theobald talks about the ways to determine land use change from urban to rural and explains different methods in obtaining data sets and information for analyzing patterns of conversion. One description that was interesting was his classification of development patterns of housing density. Urban, suburban, exurban, and rural are considered his four classes of urban housing density, in which, I think, is very much true considering the further away from town, the more rural it gets with less dense housing. Another term that he used was the urban fringe in which is is really noticeable in Nevada. For instance, you can definately see the transition from instant urban to rural in Reno and Las Vegas. Other urbanized states such as California, Florida, New York, and the New England area it is so hard to determine the urban fringe because of developing urban and suburban areas that continue to grow and merge into another city. Finally, I wanted to point out Thoebald's analyzing patterns such as collecting satellite imagery and aerial photos to point out these patterns as Gregory Dicum did in Window Seat: Reading the Landscape from the Air. Most of the book consisted of aerial urbanized satellite photos of easily determined urban fringes.

Route 66

     I wanted to comment on Chapter 5 in Route 66.  How is it that all even and odd numbered highways that were built in the United States in 1925 manage to miss the state of Kentucky as seen on the U.S. Highways Transcontinental Routes Map, Nov. 1925 (63)?  I don't blame Governor William J. Fields for protesting against Route 60 not going through a part of his state. Even with all of the Ozark Trails and other routes nearby, not one went through Kentucky. After the numbering system changed, Kentucky should of had the opportunity to have a part of Route 66 go through the state.  Also, throughout the book it was mentioned how Route 66 was the direct route from the east to the west, but I don't consider Chicago in the east. Perhaps if Route 66 did follow where Route 62 and 52 were built according to the map, then in my opinion it would of been a more direct route from east to west.

     

     The standard route marker that is shown in Chapter 5, has anyone else seen a standard route marker still being used today?  I have only seen one route, Route 101, south of San Francisco to Monterey, where the standard historic white route marker is still used.

Response to Peirce Lewis' Introducing a Cartographic Masterpiece:........

In this piece by Pierce Lewis, there is an amazing set of relief maps which show great detail of all elevations, cliffs, and valleys. Pierce Lewis talks about how in all mountain ranges, including the Appalachians, every minor hill is noticeable and detected. It's hard to believe a computer program could generate such an image without noticing any distortion. Also, he goes into explaining that by looking at these maps, no one can say that there is a boring landscape that's out there. "The map reminds us that there is no such thing as a boring landscape (297)." Truly, these maps are a work of art.

California's 12 Campsite Regions

Map of 12 California's Regions and its campsites. I thought this map was cool. Please click below:

1. Central Coast Campings 1
2. Central Valley Campings 2
3. Desert Campings 3
4. Gold Country Campings 4
5. High Sierra Campings 5
6. Inland Empire Campings 6
7. Los Angeles County Campings 7
8. North Coast Campings 8
9. Orange County Campings 9
10. San Diego County Campings 10
11. San Francisco Bay Area Campings 11
12. Shasta Cascade Campings 12

The Word "Like"

Just a thought here. I wanted to share about how I have noticed on the west coast, particular in California, that the word "like" is used entirely too much. I choose California because it is the central point of where all Hollywood television shows and movies take place and Hollywood has some of an influence on Californians. Coming from the east coast, Florida, I have heard the word "like" used, but not as much on the west coast. For example, I walk into get a coffee at Starbucks and overhear a female, about in her late twenties, say, "Oh, my gosh, that is like not true." "Did he really say that?" "I'm like so upset." "I'm going to call him like right now." These sentences were said with "like" used in every sentence. Another example, my sister-in-law, from San Diego, thinks she is on some kind of reality show every time I talk to her with her "like" words she uses about twenty times. I believe this does have a theme to it as far people from California using "like" more often and is described as a region. But, what defines the boundaries for this region?

The West Side Oil Fields of CA

  First of all, I do not like to read a geographical review without at least one map indicating where a place is especially if the review is talking about one of America's black riches, oil. What was Bret Wallach thinking? Places like the San Joaquin Valley and the Sierra Nevada Mountains are easily known, but not all readers know of places in California such as Buena Vista Hills, Elk Hills, or the Midway and Sunset Flats. 

  One thing interesting about the review that caught my attention was how Wallach described how the oil fields operated. The detail he goes into about oil wells pumping steam and how they extract oil. "Hugging the ground, the pumping units steam peacefully, except for a few shut-in wells that stand quiet and the one or two wells that are furious geysers with steam screaming out of one-inch pipe and densing in fifty-foot plumes." Also, on how oil travels through the rock layers and is embedded and hardened. 

    Another part of the story that I would like to discuss in relation to the theme "region" is the development of the west side oil field. The Department of the Navy owned its first territory on the oil field as a reserve to drill for Etchegoin.  The rise of oil companies such as Chevron, Texaco, Mobil and Shell had their own parcel of land and territories.  Later, it seemed to become a competition between claimjumpers when more and more oil wells were built.

State Boundaries

On my recent skiing trip to California, I thought of an interesting journey that will take some time to do, that is, cross every state boundary within the Continental United States and have my photo taken at each state sign. Doing this, I can say that I have been to every state, whether its just driving through, going to a particular city, or just going to a state border just to get the photo. So far, I have only three state sign photos to share, Nevada, California, and Utah. I have recently thought of doing Crater Lake in Oregon as my research point of interest, but the roads my be closed in the winter. By taking a trip up there, I can set my foot into another state, Oregon, and possibly Washington, to add to my collection.

Is Florida considered part of the South?

When reading Wilbur Zelinsky's, " Where the South Begins: The Northern Limit of the Cis-Appalachian South in Terms of Settlement Landscape," I began to think of my home state of Florida as to whether or not it is actually considered part of the South. Wilbur Zelinsky's states, "American social scientists have had to content themselves with the Census Bureau's definition of a South that terminates along the Ohio River and Mason Dixon Line although there has been some awareness that the Southern Appalachians and Peninsular Florida cannot properly be termed Southern." Geographically, Florida is a southern state, a Confederate state, and has all the characteristics as Zelinsky stated; horses, mules, and the open rural countryside.

Florida does contain characteristics that other southern states do not have such as tourism. When I think of Florida, I do not think of cities like Jacksonville, Pensacola, or Tallahassee. I think of mostly central to southern cities such as Tampa, Orlando, Daytona Beach, and Miami. These cities have major tourism involved and that other southern states don't. For example, while growing up I cannot tell you how I've heard that Jacksonville was considered South Georgia, not North Florida. Jacksonville has all the characteristics of being that southern town. Most of the population speaks a southern dialect, population has increased with new residents moving from Georgia (Georgia being 30 miles from Jacksonville), the whole county is the city limits with undeveloped land, and culturally, the southern diet is served; i.e. fried chicken, collard greens, and grits. So, it is considered a regular city like any other southern city. Also, no Disney World, Busch Gardens, South Beach, or MTV Spring Break. When the term "The South" comes into my mind, I do think of all states south of the Mason-Dixon line, including the Appalachians, and to the east of the Mississippi River, but not most of Florida. It boils down to Florida being divided into two, Northern Florida and Southern Florida with Northern Florida including the panhandle and Southern Florida including the tourist cities.