Glowing Fish's New Writeups

Port Orford Heads State Park (place)

2013-05-23T02:33:17Z

Port Orford Heads State Park is a state park in the Oregon parks system located a mile or so outside of Port Orford, Oregon. As the name suggests, it is located on headlands, a rocky peninsula that juts out into the Pacific Ocean.

The Oregon Coast is beautiful, and the rocky, mountainous Southern Oregon Coast is doubly so. Being on a high, rocky peninsula with a 270 degree view of the Pacific Ocean is one great reason to visit Port Orford Heads. The fact that this is one of the west most points in the lower 48 states is another good reason to visit. But the Oregon Coast is full of dramatic and beautiful scenery, and there is a State Park every five or ten miles.

What is of note about Port Orford Heads is that it used to be a Coast Guard base, and the base has been preserved and turned into a museum. The base was active from 1934 to 1970, during much of which time Highway 101 hadn't been completed in its modern form and Port Orford was very isolated. The Coast Guard…

Rough Skinned Newt (thing)

2013-05-20T08:07:35Z

The Rough Skinned Newt, or in scientific parlance, Taricha Granulosa (meaning: Mummy with Bumpy Skin) is a species of salamander living in The Pacific Northwest, from the panhandle of Alaska to central California. It is a mid-sized salamander, about six inches long, with a distinctive dark upper surface and pale orange lower surface. As its name implies, it also has rough skin.

As an amphibian, the Rough Skinned Newt begins life in slow moving or still waters and then metamorphosis into an adult that lives in damp forests. The Rough Skinned Newt lives in leaf litter and lives off of a diet of small invertebrates, meaning insects and worms. It returns to water to breed once a year.

None of this is that interesting to the non-herpetologist: like most salamanders, the Rough Skinned Newt lives a slow life consuming small insects and worms, and due to the low energy needs of a cold blooded animal, it can live quietly and slowly in the leaf litter. This is true of most…

These Bookshelves (poetry)

2013-05-16T10:08:43Z

Even as I became older,
I would sometimes be reminded of how little I knew.

These bookshelves always seemed a solid wall of erudition and authority,
That I could never quite hope to reach.

But now they've collapsed,
Although still standing untouched.

Now just a mass of old volumes on scant frames.

The Crimson Horror (review)

2013-05-10T00:04:27Z

The Crimson Horror is the eleventh episode of the seventh series of Doctor Who, starring Matt Smith as The Eleventh Doctor, Jenna-Louise Coleman as companion Clara Oswald, and featuring Neve McIntosh and Catrin Stewart as recurring characters Jenny and Madame Vastra. It also featured Diana Rigg and her real life daughter Rachael Stirling as a mother and daughter. The episode was written by Mark Gatiss, a frequent contributor to the show.

The episode has somewhat of a bait and switch plot, since it begins in media res. It seems at first to be a Doctor-Lite episode, but the Doctor does appear sooner than later. The story takes place in Victorian England (for various reasons, a common enough period for Doctor Who stories). In a historically accurate manner, a woman named Mrs. Gillyflower is promoting a futuristic utopian community. But like any Doctor Who story, utopian communities are always up to something, and that something is always: aliens. The Doctor and his…

Journey to the Centre of the TARDIS (review)

2013-05-06T04:18:31Z

"Journey to the Centre of the TARDIS" is the tenth episode of the seventh series of Doctor Who, starring Matt Smith as the Eleventh Doctor and Jenna-Louise Coleman as Clara Oswald. It was written by Stephen Thompson, who had previously written the somewhat underwhelming Curse of the Black Spot.

The episode's title is a very fitting description. The TARDIS is accidentally breached by the actions of some space salvagers, and with the TARDIS in distress and with the Doctor separated from Clara, events look like they are heading for disaster. The Doctor and the salvage crew must journey to the centre of the TARDIS to stop the TARDIS from exploding. But mysterious and frightening monsters are prowling the TARDIS corridors, making the operation more dangerous. And wandering into the TARDIS' gigantic library, Clara finds a book on the history of the Last Great Time War.

Like many fans, my journey through Doctor Who has been up and down, with my reaction ranging from "this…

His actions have already scarred American history. (event)

2013-04-25T23:03:40Z

I have considered writing something about the Boston bombings, but was reticent to because I felt reluctant to make a point out of such a terrible thing. But today, I read something that put my point into such total focus that I felt compelled to write something.

It is sometimes insensitive, even tasteless, to put terrible events "into perspective". If you have been injured, or lost someone close to you, "perspective" doesn't do a whole lot to help. But I think it is something we need to do to put what happened in Boston into perspective.

Especially given the title quote, an abridged version of a quote in this USA Today article. According to the authors, the bombings have "already scarred American history". Although this is one of the strongest ways I've heard it phrased, it was obvious to me that the Boston bombings were taken to be quite an event for the news media.…