I’m told the scraggly spooky trees are oaks. I foresee some seriously scary images in the offing…. especially on overcast days.

I have no idea who made the rock art, but it’s pretty cool. Clearly some thought was involved in how the rocks were placed.

This is what you see most of the way:

I can't say no to "vista points"

Slough, tracks, mountain

Ah, a piece of calendar art

For anybody not up on their geography this is, of course, Mt. Shasta. Despite having read about this region for many years, this is the first time i’ve actually seen the mountain. Like many of the peaks of the western hot zone (i.e. the cascades, etc.) it does not disappoint on first glimpse. That it’s fairly isolated adds to the drama. I foresee many a trip to the myriad state campgrounds surrounding the mountain and the area in general.

After doing my usual cursory drive-thru of Yreka (pronounced by the local NPR station as “why-reka”) i pressed on south to the odd little town of “Weed.” A billboard on i5 advertises for visitors to “enjoy Weed legally.” A sign on the way in to town says “Weed… like to welcome you.” How can you not do stuff like that when your town is named Weed?

I bought coffee from a drive-thru place that offers a freakin spectacular view of the mountain to the barista. Seems to me an actual coffee house on the same spot, with a great big window, would do a decent business, but what do i know.

I again did my cursory drive of the town (which took less time than Yreka), but on my way out of town saw a sign saying “college” so i figured i’d take a look. On the way up College Street i discovered, to my complete surprise,  The Weed Brewing Company, Huzzah!

It took a couple moments to figure out that, yes, they do indeed serve and sell their product there despite the fact the building resembled a small industrial brewery. I parked and headed up to the bar where a pretty representative cross section of the locals were already seated. Seeing they had growlers and also seeing i had no desire to do a series of tastings on an empty stomach before heading back onto the interstate i asked the somewhat harried woman for a growler of the golden ale.

While she was filling the big glass bottle a scruffy little guy next to me asked “pretty good beer here.”

“Cool… i only learned about this place five minutes ago.”

“What?”

“I’m not from around here…. just doing some sight-seeing. Didn’t even know this place was here. I just started a job in Ashland.”

“But that’s in Oregon,” he exclaimed.

“Yes, yes it is. Is there a problem bringing beer from CA into OR?”

“No, but…. but… that’s an awful long drive just for some beer.”

“Well, like i said, i didn’t know this brewery was here… so i actually came to look at Mt. Shasta. The beer, it turns out, is a bonus. Besides, Ashland’s only about an hour north.”

“Well…. wouldn’t catch me making that drive just for beer.”

I suppose i should be sufficiently impressed there is a university at all in this region… that needs a web geek. If it weren’t for that, i’d probably be working in one of the remaining mills turning trees into “forest products” and thinking Oregon was a foreign country way up north.

Oh, this is my new office.

Where the magic will eventually happen

So, the perennial question is “where is it better to be: in a city or out in the boonies?”

Without fail i keep coming to the conclusion that it is better to live in a city (a real city, not Boise, not Ashland, hardly Portland). Real cities are increasingly scarce in North America. A short list of real cities might include New York, San Francisco, Rome, Paris, Moscow, Madrid, Tokyo… etc.

Think about it. If the shit comes down, and by that i mean continued economic faltering combined with increased socioeconomic stratification, continuous war (against some shadowy enemy), the inexorable march toward the end of fossil fuels, the increasing decline of species and habitat, the decline of reason and the rise of extremism, where is it best to plant one’s flag?

This line of questioning leads me to the same conclusion every time; don’t sell the brooklyn condo… it will come in handy in as yet unforeseen ways.

So, what’s the first week’s report? This place, like all schools, is struggling. The latest rounds of budget cuts have left this place reeling and rather shell-shocked. While i remain confident in my own abilities to do more with less, i’m a bit worried about the psychic state of this place. Cuts and furloughs and restrictions and reductions all take their toll in ways beyond simply making a job more difficult. Study after study demonstrates that workers fall ill more easily and suffer a variety of maladies both real and imagined when faced with diminishing control of their lives and careers.

I’m also a bit discouraged to see the state of IT here. They’re a department that needs one big aggregate hug.

So what’s my plan of action? First, take serious control of the Homepage. Second, forge alliances with professors who can provide content starting with the journalism folks. Third, revisit off-site hosting support. No, i’m not saying ditch IT for everything, but i’m going to give some serious consideration to using third-party solutions where appropriate.

A prime example of this is our friend Slidepress as powered by SlideShowPro Director that i’m paying to host. Note: the latest version of SlidePress has an acknowledged bug, so the gallery below, as of 3/7/2010, is coming and going.

The first day of “work” at my new gig has nearly come to a close. By all accounts it has been a success: i have my SOU ID, i have an SOU employee number, i’ve learned that spouses are covered under SOU health benefits for no additional cost, i have an office and a desk and an ethernet connection to the rest of the world. I have a phone, but i’m unsure what the phone number is. I have a window that opens partially and looks onto a bucolic campus scene with tall pine trees that whisper and hiss in the breeze.

I don’t yet have my university computer or a university login, so i can’t actually do anything, but i’ve met with some key players and sat with my IT colleague who is tasked with being my guy in IT. I’ve managed to not put my foot in my mouth, talk too much, speak negatively of my past, or fall into my normal habit of ranting. That will come later.

On Sunday Annette and i traveled over to Klamath Falls. We returned via the cheerily named “Dead Indian Rd” which proved to be one of the prettiest forest roads we’ve driven in some time.

Still water. Dead trees.

The signs of mystery