From the Desk of Murray Lincoln

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Sunday, January 13, 2013

Today I am enjoying our Global Warming

Misty Hollow Carving and Misty Hollow Digital Images

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“Misty Hollow Carving” was launched in October 2008

Misty Hollow Digital Images were launched on September 26, 2012.

“Crop Circles’ Web Site” where all my images are available.

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Today I am enjoying our Global Warming

When I looked out the window today it is raining and the snow is almost all gone! It is January 13, 2013 – winter time in Canada, this part at least. It should be real cold and blustery outside with the yard covered in white stuff.

But it is almost like spring.

All that I read and hear should make me feel guilty. I, and all my fellow Earthlings, have caused Global Warming… and now look at what is happening. The dang winter is not cold enough. Sheesh! And a rainy day in January makes me feel that guilt with all the stuff you read about in the newspapers and see on TV.

Then there is that one video clip of a lonely Polar Bear clinging to the one small shrinking piece of ice… that the voice tells me is melting at an alarming rate.

Sorry I am not buying the GW thing. The poor Polar Bear can swim up to 200 or more miles nonstop. His amazing hair has small airtight spaces in each one and acts like a giant life jacket for the big bear. The bigger the bear the bigger the life jacket – and he or she can swim.

Now he or she does need to eat… and if lucky they will. Global Warming has simply made it possible for more prey to be there for the bear.

Sorry GW guilt doesn’t work for me when I see what other parts of Canada and the world are going through. The huge piles of snow dropped on the different areas has caused big problems with the traffic – cars and airplanes. We are getting way more snow when we do get snow.

Maybe we are returning to an Ice Age of sorts? Hmmm?

I mean the same scientists tell me that a huge glacier covered most of Canada at one time but then it melted and moved away leaving our country a place to live on and in.

Who’s fault was that Ice Age Melt then? It wasn’t mine! Maybe it was Dinosaur farts. It had to be someone’s fault… someone had to be giving out Guilt Trips!!! But there was no TV or Newspapers in the IAM – so they just enjoyed it all.

Today I am going outside to enjoy the warm weather… before the return of cold stuff next week. I have no Guilt at all. I might be envied by some of my relatives that live in colder areas and have to shovel each day. But I can handle their questions…

And I want to say “Thank You” to Texas and other states that let their warm air flow north to us!

Today I will enjoy what I have. In fact that may just be my main Goal for 2013.

~ Murray Lincoln ~

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Saturday, January 12, 2013

Completing my 4th time through High School – and my Acing Kinesiology

Misty Hollow Carving and Misty Hollow Digital Images

These BLOGS are sponsored by my businesses.

“Misty Hollow Carving” was launched in October 2008

Misty Hollow Digital Images were launched on September 26, 2012.

“Crop Circles’ Web Site” where all my images are available.

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Completing my 4^th time through High School – and my Acing Kinesiology

Today I am going for my final mark in Kinesiology – the Grade 12 level course. It will be my second Grade 12 course that I will Ace in this past 12 months.

It is my fourth time to finish high school in June 2013. I complete the first stint of high school in 1962. Then I did it again in 1988 and 1990 – the years that my two daughters completed their studies at that level. Now it is my first grandson that will be done his grade 12 in June.

Kinesiology you say?

Yep! Today my grandson is coming to work with me on his “human joint’. “Grandpa if we can make it and get it to work as well I will get the highest mark in the class. Can you help me on Saturday?” Clifford asked.

Well there is just nothing more important to me than my grandkids. One request from them will shut down my entire world and stop action to all that I am doing that day or time in my life. Helping Clifford Ace his Kinesiology Class by making a ‘human joint’ is a today’s task.

We are making the knee joint that will be fastened together with ligaments and muscles. The joint will be made of 2X4 boards held together with Bungee Cords. The actual inside part will be two halves of a Golf Ball. These will rest on the surface of the foam cartilage to make a smooth moving knee joint with little or no pain.

We will need a running shoe from Clifford to put on the wooden foot and give it some realism.

The muscle pulling the leg straight and back again will be strong cords that will be rigged to pull the leg by an old inner tube from a bicycle tire.

Okay. Okay. Do I sound excited or what or what!!!? You betcha I am. And to work alongside of a top athlete as we create his leg joint from wood is just too much fun!!!

This is going to be a good day!

Addendum...

Project was finished today so here is the results for the whole world to see... amazing really - Clifford did a
GREAT JOB with this one! Here are the photos...

Yes - these are golf balls on the lower part of the femur... and the cartilage is made from a old bicycle inner tube... tendons are Bungee Cords as planned.

~ Murray Lincoln ~

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Friday, January 11, 2013

Finding the Reserve and the Resolve to complete the Project

Misty Hollow Carving and Misty Hollow Digital Images

These BLOGS are sponsored by my businesses.

“Misty Hollow Carving” was launched in October 2008

Misty Hollow Digital Images were launched on September 26, 2012.

“Crop Circles’ Web Site” where all my images are available.

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Finding the Reserve and the Resolve to complete the Project

Another Wood Carver made this statement that has caused me to think… hmmm?

Quote… "You can achieve 90 percent of the effect with 50 percent of the effort. But the truth is, unless you do the final 10 percent, which takes another 50 percent of effort, you'll never achieve that fineness"

Well said.

I am a wood carver and know what this statement is all about. I can easily do the first 90% of a carving. At that stage it is looking pretty good. The shape has come along, the detail is showing up and it would likely sell to someone that wants it – now.

But when I pause and look at it closely and then really see where my proportions, my thickness, my detail – simply stinks… I then muster the resolve to start the rest of the carving that is needed to complete the work.

The great difficulty is finding the reserve of creativity and the resolve to stick with this until the carving is complete. Reserve and Resolve – two very important qualities that have been built up in my carving ability.

BUT and it is a BIG BUT… the sale of your carving or the piece that you are working on will possibly be quashed by the fact that price will go sky high for most people. Only people with the wealth that astounds will be able to afford what I can do. Ordinary people will either be totally shocked or completely disgusted.

In one setting not long ago I had carved a very intricate piece. It was done on a small piece of wood that was ½” X ½” by 12 inches long. It took me nearly 4 hours to complete the carving.

I put a price of $85 on that carving.

Needless to say many people picked up the carving to look at it and many were interested in the price. And finally one person bought it and came back later to buy a second one. The price was not problem for that final person.

But in the marketing process of that carving one woman picked it up and looked at it… turning it this way and that. Then after studying it closely she turned to me and asked how much the piece was. I told her $85 and her reaction was immediate and without any reserve – “$85 – you have got to be kidding! For an old piece of wood!! That is nuts!” She dropped the carving on the table and walked away shaking her head.

I didn’t quite know what to say to her. She obviously wanted something for $5.00… and she was likely the $5.00 kind of person – that if it was $5.00 she would want a discount on that because she was kind enough to look at my carvings.

But “attitude” of others cannot stop me from doing my best. It cannot make me withhold the last 50% that is needed to complete my last 10%. I must make it the best ever.

This year for Christmas I carved my very first Rose. It is carved from one block of wood – not with pieces added to the Rose. And it was carved specially for my wife… and painted in brilliant gold. It was my attempt this year to tell her how much she means to me and what a treasure she is.

It took me way more than 5 hours to do this. And many times I nearly slammed the carving to the floor… as my hands shook… my eyes hurt… and my feet were very cold. I was carving in my workshop where the floor becomes very cold in the winter months.

This Rose nearly died an early death… and almost didn’t make it to the completed stage. The last 10% required more than 50%. I was working closer to 100% all over again. It was at this stage that the petals on the Rose had to be thinned down to the actual thickness of a real Rose Petal.

But later when she opened the gift and she looked at me in amazement… jumped up and came to give me a bug hug… well I knew that the 200% I gave into this carving was well worth it all.

My granddaughter was watching us and then asked me, “Grandpa if you were to sell this Rose how much would it be?”

I looked at her and grinned, then answered, “I think it would be between $300 to $450…”

She said, “I thought so!”

There is no way that this carving will be offered to the $5.00 lady. I couldn’t afford letting her pick it up and then drop it!! It is far less wood than the 12 inch piece that she had handled earlier.

This principle works in almost every Art form and Craft form. If it is good, the artist has put way more of themselves into the product that the customer is likely willing to pay. But that is what makes it priceless.

~ Murray Lincoln ~

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My Carved Gold Rose

Thursday, January 10, 2013

The January Winter Blues and Confusing News

Misty Hollow Carving and Misty Hollow Digital Images

These BLOGS are sponsored by my businesses.

“Misty Hollow Carving” was launched in October 2008

Misty Hollow Digital Images were launched on September 26, 2012.

“Crop Circles’ Web Site” where all my images are available.

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The January Winter Blues and Confusing News

Can it get any more confusing and troubling than it is today – in the news?

A pod of Killer Whales are trapped in the Hudson Bay – the ice is freezing over and the hole that they are using to get their air is getting smaller each hour. There are 12 whales in this small pod. There is no ice breaker to come and rescue them. Read about it here.

The teachers of Ontario are going to tell the Government of Ontario that their idea to make it illegal for the teachers to strike – is all wrong! The Government and the outgoing Premiere McGuinty is adamant that the teachers are now in an illegal strike attitude and if they strike he can have them fined up to $2000 each. Mind you he made the rules and imposed the Bill 115 on them, cancelled Provincial Parliament, and then quit his job. Those that will follow him and try to get the job that he had – have to repeal this Bill in order to get elected. Mind you theses dear folks are trying to get the leadership role of the Liberal Party – which has made so many people angry that re-election looks slim.

What a way to go out into oblivion – make everyone mad… create a crisis that only you can fix and then because of pride you refuse to do anything about it. Way to go P. McGuinty!

Read about it here.

The Toronto Maple Leaf Owners fired the leadership man, Brian Burke. It seems that they just hated the way that he dressed or acted or something. Mind it wasn’t the Maple Leafs that didn’t like him – it was the top man(probably) that didn’t like the way that BB did things. Not much to do with Hockey. Read about it here.

An Aboriginal Chief is on an extended Fast because she wants to meet with our Prime Minister and the Governor General in person – or else. The more I read of this escapade the less respect that I have for her. What could be a great thing for the Aboriginal people of Canada and a step forward – is turning into a side show about a woman that has apparently not managed the money that her people get – very well. (One report statement said that she pays her boyfriend $850 a day.) Yet her people on her reserve live in poverty.

Read about it here. When I see the photos of her now – she looks pretty healthy for someone that has not eaten for a long time. Hmmm?

But good luck to her anyway. Most of our Canadian people would love to be able to get anywhere near the Prime Minister or the Governor General of Canada… let alone demand that they both come begging and bowing to me personally – or I will simply starve/FAST myself to death.

Neither of these people listen to anything that I say – let alone bow to my command.

You gotta give Chief Spence a medal for trying this tactic – even at the risk of death from a diabetic problem or some other awful plight.

Have you ever wondered what Stephen Harper’s kids talk to their dad about at the dinner table? Hmm? I wonder if they read all about the stuff that is going on around their dad?

After reading this every increasing list of January Blue Winter News – I am going back to bed. See you tomorrow.

~ Murray Lincoln ~

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Wednesday, January 9, 2013

Looking at a Bigger World and Universe – Wow!

Misty Hollow Carving and Misty Hollow Digital Images

These BLOGS are sponsored by my businesses.

“Misty Hollow Carving” was launched in October 2008

Misty Hollow Digital Images were launched on September 26, 2012.

“Crop Circles’ Web Site” where all my images are available.

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(Click on the image to see it larger)

Looking at a Bigger World and Universe – Wow!

I have the perfect News Bite for you today. It is all about the Mars Rover which is now moving about on the planet Mars.

You need to take a look at this Link – one of the best that I have seen so far. Rover panorama: Begin exploring Mars When the page comes into your view you can look up or down – and in 360 degrees in all directions around the Rover. You can also zoom in and out to see the Gale Crater better. What a fantasy trip away from Mother Earth – small and blue and closer to our Sun.

The wonder of this creation around us simply stuns my senses. With the help of Science and the amazing Space program I can see creation in a totally different way.

Please take a look at this Link as well Mars Rover:Explore the Red Planet with Nasa’s robot. One click on the planet Mars – the round ball will make the planet spin and the camera pan in to the Gale Crater and give you further information about the planet and Crater.

The Gale Crater is 96 miles across. The Rover is situated at the edge of the Crater and can look at the ‘mountain’ in the middle. That is Mount Sharp which is 5,500 metres/18,000 feet high… and apparently was formed when a meteor hit Mars’ surface long ago. (BTW Canada’s highest mountains are in the Yukon at just over 19,000 feet high.)

The brilliant minds that chose the Gale Crater to investigate did so because one side of the Crater appears to have some form of landscaping done by water flow. The Web Site states the following… quote…

Evidence of water

The north wall of Gale Crater is criss-crossed by a network of valleys believed to have been carved by water entering the 150km-wide depression from outside.

This is the first view of a so-called fluvial system taken from the surface of Mars. Such networks date from a period of Martian history when liquid water flowed freely on the surface. Scientists have remarked that Curiosity's surroundings bear a striking resemblance to the landscape of America's south-west. End quote.

Now as I put this small bit of information together for myself… I zoom back to my boyhood days.

I lived in Regina, Saskatchewan, the capital city of the Province. We were located in the southern part of the Province in the western part of Canada.

Saskatoon, Saskatchewan is 160 miles north of Regina. When I was a boy it seemed like a long ways to drive there. But it was not nearly as long as the car ride to Oak Lake, Manitoba where my aunt and uncle had a farm. That was 240 Miles east of Regina, near Brandon.

The Gale Crater would fit between Regina and Saskatoon with a 30 mile space on each side. And it would cover almost half way to Oak Lake.

That helps my ‘little boy mind’ to grasp what it is all about. But when my ‘little boy mind’ tried to imagine anything outside of our home in Regina and the fields nearby – it simply shut down. The thought couldn’t make it past the field that was to the East and North of where we lived.

Now at 68 years old with a ‘big boys mind’ and the help of the Internet I have now ‘stood’ on Mars.

The Gale Crater is only one small smudge on the surface of that giant planet so far away. There are way more and bigger Craters and huge mountains on Mars’ surface.

The ability to go to Mars, send photos back from Mars and for me to instantly see whatever I would like to see today – in a mere seconds… all happened during my short lifespan. To think it all took place in less than 60 short years… and in fact only in the last 40 years… blows my mind!

Today as I surfed the surface of Mars I also tried out Saturn. Wow! What a beauty.

Now I am able to face another day. The humdrum of living the same old – same old is pushed aside as I dream about what I read and saw today.

Away back in 1950 I was 6 years old… and just beginning to walk around outside by myself… to discover the big world out there. Wow – what a difference a lifetime makes! But the same old back then was also pushed aside by my imagination that took me to places no one else had ever gone either.

Ooops – gotta go… another trip is about to begin – right now and I can’t miss this one!

~ Murray Lincoln ~

For your inspection

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-20094052

To help me promote my Web Site please copy this URL address and email to someone today http://www.murraylincoln.com/ and http://mistyhollow-digitalimages.blogspot.ca/

References:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-20947274

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Highest_mountain_peaks_of_Canada

Photos of Mars

By the way... Mars appears a lot like Saskatchewan - when I was a boy - areas south of Regina!!!

Tuesday, January 8, 2013

Word and Idea Fodder for a Blog

Misty Hollow Carving and Misty Hollow Digital Images

These BLOGS are sponsored by my businesses.

“Misty Hollow Carving” was launched in October 2008

Misty Hollow Digital Images were launched on September 26, 2012.

“Crop Circles’ Web Site” where all my images are available.

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Word and Idea Fodder for a Blog

It is early in the morning and the News Papers are full of things to make you think. Each article is enough to get a ‘Blog Idea’ spinning for a good three or four days. There is no end of ideas that one could write about.

Take the story about Sophie Laboissonniere, the 21 year old that kind of blew it one night in June 2011. It was downtown Vancouver and she had joined friends to take part in a riot after the Stanley Cup Finals in Hockey. She is from Richmond, B.C. and was kind of partying in downtown Vancouver when it all happened.

I highly doubt that she was there with intent to do something wrong. I also think that her Dad and Mom nearly died when they found that she was arrested and charged with ‘rioting’ and ‘break & enter’.

Why?

Well Miss Sophie was “Miss Congeniality” in a beauty contest. Oh Boy! Does your mind go crazy with a smirk on your face after hearing that one? Mine does.

Or then there is the story about the NHL and the NHL players together with their Team Organizations in the every community. An expert in marketing, a Mr. Wong from Queen’s University in Ontario, says that the Hockey people are going to possibly have problems getting their fans back again – to the games or to Hockey in general. He thinks fans are very upset and will not rebound the way that the NHL has hoped. He kind of thinks that fans will not come back with great enthusiasm… and that maybe the NHL will have to do way more to get them back in support.

Not sure exactly what Mr. Wong might suggest to the League… but I think he has something going for him. People see what he says as making sense and have hired him in the past to help Teams like the Blue Jays.

Why is this a story, for someone like me who hates hockey and seldom ever watches a game? Well I guess it is a definite, “I told you so!” rising in me. I quit all rich sports when they started demanding way more money for doing their jobs – knowing that it was the public that would pay. Knowing that it was the ordinary person’s money that they were dickering over – but not knowing if they would ever get the ordinary persons money ever again!

I could write about the Aboriginal state of affairs and its conflict with the Government of Canada. However the politically charged scene is rift with unknown stories. They, the Aboriginals, already get a while lot of money and it doesn’t seem to help.

BUT so does our Canadian Government – get a whole lot of money from all of us – and that doesn’t seem to help either. They spend like crazy and get into more and more debt… my debt. Then they penalize the people that they get money from – to make them pay down more of the debt that is ‘theirs’… and that was created buy their own over spending and bad decisions.

But wait a minute some of the Aboriginals and the Government are the same – one learned from the other. They get lots and spend way too much – then sit down and do nothing. Who learned that from whom? I think my Aboriginal brothers and sisters learned well – too well.

But the stories are not with the Aboriginals that are protesting. It is with the Aboriginals that have done very well and no one reports on what is happening with them… or how they did such a good job without Government Money.

What if the Aboriginal People changed places with the Canadian Government for say – maybe six months? Could they fix it all? They seem to have an answer or want a solution… what would happen? Maybe the elected Canadian Leaders would think differently if they lived in the run down houses… and they would start asking questions where the Millions of Dollars of Government Money has gone – and to who?

There is a story here – but it is not being told.

I could go on and on. Today has been a good day to gather fodder for stories.

If you are now thinking about these stories – good for you!!

Now try on the Ontario School Teachers and the Ontario Government story. Ms. Broten, an elected leader, is someone you could talk about for a long time… let alone the Liberal Government`s attitude – and our debt load that we are going to pay for – over and over again.

Hey – if you are depressed today… do what they all do… go out and buy something you cannot afford… then sit down and do nothing! Wahoo! Three cheers for stupidity!!!

~ Murray Lincoln ~

For your inspection