Amazing Phenomena I'vd Seen

Total Solar Eclipse - August 21, 2017

Vivid Hypnagogic Hallucinations

I recently discovered there was a name for this and I’m not the only one to have this happen.  From Wikipedia “Hypnagogia is the experience of the transitional state between wakefulness and sleep in humans: the hypnagogic state of consciousness, during the onset of sleep. Mental phenomena that occur during this "threshold consciousness" phase include lucid thought, lucid dreaming, hallucinations, and sleep paralysis.” There are different types of images that can be seen but they are described as “Individual images are typically fleeting and given to very rapid changes.” I have seen two type of images in this state.  Faces and mathematical/physics notebook pages.  For me the images are in black and white.  I typically dream in black and white, it’s really more like gray and grayer in a heavy fog.  This makes the vivid images even more strange to me.  The faces appear like they are drawn with a pencil.  The crazy thing is how fast they change.  I see each one for just a fraction of a second and then it is instantly replaced by another.  All different kinds of faces; men, women, children, elderly, friendly and unfriendly.  I never recognize any of the faces as someone I know.  I am not completely asleep when this happens and I’m conscious enough to think about what’s happening.  I can’t believe something in my brain is generating all these faces so quickly.  I can’t control it.  Can’t slow it down.  Can’t stop it.  The first few times this happened it scared me because I thought I might see something I did’t want to see.  The only thing I could do to stop it was to somehow find the ability to open my eyes (it wasn’t easy).  I’ve never seen anything scary so now I just enjoy the show until I slip into sleep.  The other kind I see is what I can only describe as pages of math and physics homework or notebooks.  They are pages with mathematical equations and physics diagrams.  Like the faces they rapidly change.  I can’t close my eyes and consciously visualize anything like it.  Not even one static image.  Of course it doesn’t happen all the time just once in a while so when it does I just enjoy it.  It blows my mind to be seeing these images that are generated in my head and yet I can’t control or stop it.  

Rain drops in the ocean

I’ve seen many amazing things while scuba diving that could make this list.  Rain is probably not on anyone’s list of things to see while diving.  It wasn’t on mine.  At the end of a dive in Palau I could see it was raining during the safety stop and that looked pretty cool to look up and see the many ripples on the surface spreading out from each rain drop.  However it was when I got to the surface that was really memorable.  It was raining big drops but not very heavy so there was plenty of space between the drops.  When I surfaced I floated so my mask was partly above water and partly below.  The surface was calm.  It seemed I could see forever across the sea.  The raindrops hit the water and formed the classical splash and the rebound drop of water shooting up from the surface.  Maybe it was the magnification of the scuba mask but the drops and splashes seemed huge.  I recently saw a video by Paul Nicklen that shows rain from this perspective (with the addition of a crocodile):  https://vimeo.com/256797730

Snow from airplane with strobe

One night I was flying into Salt Lake City when we flew through a snow flurry.  There was a light on the wing that illuminated the snowflakes in front of the wing.  Due to the speed of the plane the snowflakes appeared as white horizontal streaks.  There was also a strobe light on the wing that flashed about every second.  The strobe was fast enough to visually freeze the snowflakes in place for a fraction of a second.  Visually there were horizontal white streaks of snow and once every second they would all stand perfect still just long enough to perceive it then they would blur again.  I may not have describe it very well but it was a memorable illusion.  

Bioluminescence

Once on a business trip to Puerto Rico I planned to visit a nearby bioluminescence bay.  I was with 3 others from work but I rented the car.  I told them where I planned to go and said they could come along if they liked.  They all chose to go with me.  I didn’t know much about the tour just that we would get on a boat and go see it.  It was a small boat that was near capacity with about 12 people total.  It was a warm dark evening with no moon.  The boat ride was about 30 minutes.  As we approached the bioluminescence bay we could begin to see flashes of light in the boat’s wake.  Then the wake began to glow greenish blue.  When the boat came to a stop a few of the locals began stripping down to their underwear to jump in.  I didn’t know this was optional but I quickly made one of the best impromptu decision I’ve ever made.  I handed my wallet to a coworker and said I’m going in.  I stripped down to my underwear, stepped up to the edge of the boat and dove in head first.  It was very dark and I couldn’t see the water when I jumped but as soon as I hit the water it exploded with green light.  It was like I was swimming in a neon light.  After what seemed like just a few seconds the tour guide was telling me and the others to get back in the boat (maybe it wasn’t an optional part of the tour).  I wanted to stay in the water longer so swam around the boat before getting in.  As I swam I could see individual dinoflagellates give off their tiny burst of light like flashing stars in a sea of neon green.  Reluctantly I climbed into the boat and dried off in the warm breeze as the boat raced back to shore.  I’ve not made it back to a bioluminescence bay yet but I hope to.  

Annular Solar Eclipse - May 20, 2012

Annular solar eclipse a few years back was pretty cool to see but it was seen through filters and eclipse glasses.  I once read that on a scale of 1 to 10 an annular solar eclipse is a 9 and a total solar eclipse is a 100.  I agree.  The total solar eclipse in August of 2017 was without a doubt the most amazing phenomenon I have ever seen.  I had read about total eclipses and seen photos and videos but nothing was like seeing the real thing.  I read some advice for photographers seeing their first eclipse that went something like this.  “Don’t try to take any photos at all.  Just take it all in.”  I took this advice, sort of.  I did try to take photos.  I had two cameras setup one with a filter to capture the eclipse up to totality and one to take photos of totality.  They were both set on interval mode so they were both taking photos the whole time and I didn’t need to touch the cameras.  I just needed to remove the lens cap of the camera set to capture totality just before totality and put the lens cap back on just after totality.  However, I had to guess at the settings needed for totality and I set it up to bracket the exposure incase my guess was off.  It was off.  Only the lowest exposure shots captured any detail but even in those much of the sun’s corona was blown out (just white, no detail).  I’m so glad I didn’t try to get good photos of the total eclipse.  If I’d tried to get everything right I would have been messing with my cameras the whole time and missed much of the experience of the eclipse.  The brilliance and beauty of the sun’s corona is difficult to describe.  I understand how people get hooked on chasing total solar eclipses.  

Stupid Dreams

I hate dreams.  I mean the kind that I have when I’m asleep.  They never make sense.  They are stupid and stressful, the places and situations continually change and I’m unable to anything that I’m trying to do even performing simple tasks.  However, often I’m able to recognize that I am dreaming and that sometime helps me deal with the stress and stupidity.   

I typically dream in black and white or more precisely gray and grayer in a heavy fog.  Sometimes during a stressful dream I will ask myself “Am I seeing black and white or color?”  If it’s black and white I know it’s a dream and just let it go on without stressing.  A few times I’ve been fooled.  Even if just one object is in color it’s enough to fool me and I conclude that I’m not dreaming and it is real.  Then I really get stressed out.  

Sometimes when a dream goes really bad I can rewind and dream it again with a more favorable outcome.  I’m not sure how I recognize it’s a dream and it can be rewound but at least it’s less stressful that way.

A few weeks ago I had a dream where I was unable to get ready for bed.  It was nearly impossible to get my shirt off and when I did there was another shirt underneath it and it just kept repeating.  I was pulling so hard to get my arms out of the sleeves and when I finally did there was another shirt that had to be removed.  I finally just fell to the ground and started crying because I couldn't even take my shirt off.  Then I dreamed I woke up and I was telling people about this dream I had where it was so difficult to get my shirt off and when I did there were more shirts underneath it.  I was dreaming about telling people about the dream I was dreaming.  When I woke up for real I told Chammy about the dream I had telling people about the dream I had in the same dream.

Last night I came up with a new way to escape a dream.  I dreamed I woke up at my desk at work at 3:00 in the afternoon and I didn’t know how long I had been asleep.  It was nothing like my real work place (but that’s typical for my dreams).  I was worried that I’d be in trouble for sleeping at work but there was no one else in the area.  I notice some smoke so I began to look around and saw a fire in a lab area.  Then I noticed more fires.  I tried to get other employees to get out but no one listened.  I found a fire extinguisher but it didn’t work so I started to run.  The place I was in was like a subway station, underground with arched ceilings and many stairways and other smaller tunnels off to the sides.  I kept finding more fires and was trying to get the people to run but they all ignored me.  This went on for awhile and I couldn’t find a way out.  Then it dawned on me that this was just a dream.  I decided to get out by walking through the wall because it was a dream and the wall wasn’t real.  I calmly walked into the wall.  I only got a part way through it and then got stuck.  Then I panicked and started screaming “Wake me up!  Chammy, wake me up!  Help! Somebody wake me up!”  I don’t think I was talking or screaming in my sleep because Chammy would have woken up.  I did manage to wake myself up about that time.  I didn’t go back to sleep for awhile.  I just laid there thinking how my dreams are evolving to a new level of crazy.  

What kind of crazy dreams do you have?

Freddy

This is the beach in Palau where I last met Freddy in 2001.  This photo was taken in 2007 by my son. 

One day on my way to school I came upon a group of 3 or 4 fifth graders bullying a first grader.  They were pushing him into a chainlink fence and kicking him.  The first grader was scared and crying.  I immediately called out “Leave him alone.”  The 5th graders stopped and looked my way.  As I approached them I said with as much confidence and authority as I could “Leave him alone.”  They left him alone at that point.  They were probably about done beating him up anyways.  They slowly walked off calling me and the first grader names.  They were all a year older than me and they out numbered me.  They could have easily done to me what they did to the first grader but they didn’t.  They just called me a few names and were gone.  I picked up the boy’s lunch sack that had been stomped on and completely flattened and handed it to him.  I was sorry I didn’t have anything to share with him because I always ate school lunch and had nothing with me.  I walked the rest of the way to school with him.  I’m not sure what we talked about but I learned his name was Freddy.  

Later in life I met a few other young boys while I was out walking.  I never learned their names but collectively I think of all of them as Freddy.  

The second time I met Freddy was in San Francisco.  I was 16 and my dad was taking me to see the Dallas Cowboys play the 49ers on Monday Night Football.  Most of the trip was paid for with beer cans.  My dad and I would often walk along the side of the highways and pick up aluminum cans and take them to be recycled.  We would get a few cents per pound.  We saved up enough to pay the fares for a Greyhound bus to San Francisco and the game tickets.  We stayed one night in a motel in San Francisco.  We caught a city bus from the motel to Candlestick Park.  We didn’t know which stop was closest to Candlestick so we asked the bus driver to let us know when to get off.   When we could see the stadium the bus driver stopped and told us to just walk straight down this street as he pointed to the stadium.  We got out and started walking down the street.  We didn’t get very far before we felt out of place.  It was a residential street with houses on both sides built very close together.  The residence were staring at us.  Soon some of them began yelling at us.  “Hey mother f@#kers! What you doin’ here.”  “Get your white asses atta here.”  “You gonna die mother f&#kers.”  We were scared but just tried to look straight ahead and walked as quickly as we could.  The yelling must have gotten everyone’s attention.  Men and women started yelling at us from windows.  Those that weren’t yelling were staring at us with looks that could kill.  Suddenly there was a young boy walking next to me.  

“Are you going to the game?” he asked in a excited voice.  

“Uh, yes.” I said.  

“Wow, I wish I could go to a game.  Have you been to a game before.”

“Uh, yes.”

The name calling stopped as soon as he started talking to us.  The adults still gave us unhappy looks but they didn’t say anything.  He was a curious 9 or 10 year old boy but we felt much safer walking with him by our side.   

He continued asking questions and talking about football.  He was very happy and was exited to hear about the football players I had seen.  He stayed by our side until we got to the end of the street which was the start of the stadium parking lot.  I remember him saying something like “Have fun at the game.  I wish I could go to a game.”  

Even as a young kid going to a few professional football games I felt something wasn’t right.  I knew all the players.  I knew their numbers, positions and their stats.  I knew many if not most were black.  But I didn’t see black people in the stands as fans.  That always bothered me.  

This is a photo I took at the Monday Night Football game between the Dallas Cowboys and San Francisco 49ers in 1977.

I began walking to school every morning with Freddy.  I was his bodyguard.  I’m sure no one who knows me now can picture me as a bodyguard but in fourth grade I was respected on the playground.  I played football at recess and lunch with fourth and fifth graders.  My nickname was Legs because my friends said I was the fastest kid in the school.  I knew that wasn’t true.  My older sister was faster than me and surely there were some other sixth graders who were faster.  But I wasn’t about to say anything.  I liked the reputation and I liked being one of the dominate kids on the playground.  When Freddy was with me he was safe.  Every morning we met across the street from my house at the start of a short cut through a vacant lot, then walked to school. 

Freddy's bodyguard, spring 1970.

At the time I lived in San Bernardino, California.  This was the time of Vietnam War protests and racial riots.   Our house was next to San Gorgonio High School.  That year there were days when I walked to school with the sidewalks lined with riot police with their helmets, shields and guns.  I remember seeing fighting from our front window.  I’m not sure how my parents did it, probably just by example, but I grew up with a compassion and empathy for black people.  I didn’t know much about history then but I knew they were not treated good.  I always wanted them to be treated equally and succeed in everything they did.  It really upset me that Freddy was bullied and called names because of the color of his skin.  

The next time I walked with Freddy was in Taiwan.  I lived there for the summer of 1983 during college break.  I didn’t really have much to do other than study Chinese on my own.  Nearly every day I would go out walking around Taipei.  This particular evening I went to the very southwest side of Taipei across the Tamsui River to Youghe.  The Youghe District was famous for places that served breakfast all day long.  I always called them 豆漿 (doujiang - soy milk) places.  I love the cold 豆漿 they serve.  After having breakfast for dinner I decided to walk home (with the help of Google Maps I just learned this is about 8 miles).  It was already dark as I started to walk home.   Back then it seemed Taipei fell asleep as soon as it got dark.  There was much less traffic, fewer pedestrians and everything closed except night markets.  By the time I passed the old baseball stadium the city was very quiet.  Out of nowhere I heard a voice from behind me say in Chinese “What are you doing out so late?”  I turned around to see a young boy with a dog on a leash.

“I’m walking home.  What are you doing out this late?”  I replied in Chinese.  

“Walking my dog.  Where do you live?”

We continued the conversation as we walked.  We were the only two out and there were very few cars.  Eventually an ambulance raced by with it’s lights flashing and siren blaring.  It turned down a side street a few blocks in front of us and disappeared.  A minute later it reappeared and went down one more block, turned and disappeared again.  Soon it reappeared again and went one more block down, turned and disappeared.    

The conversation was very unusual for me.  This young boy initiated the conversation in Chinese and was not surprised nor impressed with my response in Chinese.  He didn’t even say “Oh, your Chinese is so good.  Where did you learn to speak it.”  He didn’t say anything about me being a foreigner.  He didn’t acknowledge that I was a foreigner in anyway.  He treated me like a neighbor that he saw everyday.  It was great.  

We walked a few blocks then he ended the conversation as abruptly as it began “I got to go now. 再見 (zaijian - goodbye).”  

The streets of Taipei in 1983. 

I was not a fighter.  I had never been in a fist fight (I still haven’t) but I knew there was a possibility I would have to fight walking Freddy to school everyday.  After all I was his body guard.  Fortunately I never ran into any trouble while walking him to school.  However, one evening I was out playing when I was confronted by a kid that lived down the street.  He said “Why are you walking that n&#%^ to school?” He shoved me and I shoved him back.  Luckily for me a friend who was a few years older stepped in and broke it up right then.  There was no way for me to win this fight.  If it ended any way other than me getting my ass totally kicked he would have come back with 2 or 3 of his older brothers and beat the shit out of me.  I had seen them gang up to beat up kids then urinate on them.  I’m sure that would have happened to me if I had hurt this kid in any way.  

The last time I saw Freddy was June 13, 2001 in Palau.  I was walking along a beach after dark watching lightning in the distance and faint bioluminescence in the waves.  There was an opening in the clouds that I mistook for a light thin cloud.  Once I realized it was an opening in the clouds I could see many stars through the opening.  I had a small flash light to watch out for cane toads.  There were many out in the evenings and I didn’t want to step on one.  I noticed hermit crabs on the sand and other crabs darting out of the light.  A young Palauan boy approached me.  

“Do you speak Palauan?” He asked.  

“No, do you speak English?”

“No.” He said.  But obviously he spoke a little.  

I said “I do know how to say hello, ah lee.”

He then taught me how to say “Dong-o-long.” But I didn’t know what it meant.  At first I thought it meant crab because he was pointing at one.  But when I pointed at one and said “Dong-o-long” he acted as if I got it all wrong.  Eventually I came to believe it meant “Yes.”  Whatever it means the boy was very happy I learned to say it.  I then asked him what his name was.  He got frustrated because I just couldn’t say it right.  

He then spotted a crab that was holding still in the light and he slowly crept closer to it.  I held the light on it.  When he got too close the crab started to run.  The boy jumped towards it and reach out with his bare foot to stomp on it.  He missed.  

He then asked “Do you know splash?”  

I said splash like the waves and pointed the light to the small waves crashing on the sand.  

He looked confused and asked again.  This time I just said “Splash?”  Thinking I might be hearing him wrong.  He pointed to a small building ahead on the beach and said “That is splash.”  The building was the dive shop at the resort named Splash.  

He then said something about “Mama” and turned to go.  I asked him how to say good bye.  He said “ May-ee-gong.”  So I repeated it and waved as he turned and ran off.  

One Spring morning late in the school year I saw a lady turn the corner with Freddy.  I waited in the street in front of my house as they walked to our meeting spot.  When they approached the lady said “I’m Freddy’s mother.  You must be Ross.  Thank you.  Thank you for walking to school with Freddy.”  I could tell she was sincerely grateful and it meant a lot to her.  

Shortly after that school year ended we moved and I never saw Freddy again.  Off and on I think of Freddy.  I’ve thought of him more and more the last few years.  I wonder if he got beat up walking to school again.  I wonder if the police often pull him over and harass him for minor or made up violations.  I wonder if he gets watched in stores like he’s some kind of criminal.  Did he get treated as if he wasn’t smart in school.  Does he get paid less than his white coworkers.  Does he worry that his kids will get beat up walking to school.  

I think about Freddy’s mom too.  I now have kids of my own.  They say I am over protective.  I do want the best for them and worry a lot.  However there is no way I can even imagine how Freddy’s mom must feel.  I don’t know what I would do if I feared that my child would get bullied and beat up every time he left the house or if I knew my child would be discriminated against and treated unfairly in nearly every aspect of life.  The “Thank you” Freddy’s mom gave me means more to me than any other “Thank you” I have ever received.  

Antarctica

There was a photo contest at the end of the expedition to Antarctica on our ship the Akademik Sergey Vavilov.  The expedition's photographer, another professional photographer and a few others on the staff were the initial judges they sorted through over 1000 entries and selected 5 photos for each of 4 categories.  I entered a dozen photos with at least 1 in each category.  The passengers then selected the winners based on applause.  Of the 20 finalist photos selected be the judges, 5 were mine with at least one in every category.  None of mine were selected as winners by the passengers' applause but I still felt pretty good knowing that 1/4 of the photos chosen by the judges were mine.  Here are a few I entered along with a few others I've worked on since I got home.

Gentoo Penguins at Fort Point

Just off Cuvehrville Island

Blue-Eyed Shags at Paradise Bay

Giant Petrel - Antarctic Sound

Fort Point - A beautiful day at a beautiful place!

Gentoo chick at Fort Point

Feeding time at Fort Point

Antarctic Sound

Albatross on New Island, Falklands

This was my campsite at Leith Cove

King Penguins on Westpoint Island, Falklands

Near Gourdin Islands

Rock Hopper Penguins on Westpoint Island, Falklands

Baby Gentoo talking back to it's dad at Brown Bluff 

New Year's Eve at about 11:00 p.m. Antarctic Sound

Adelie Penguins 

Chinstrap Penguin sleeping

Iceland

It's about time I posted a few photos from Iceland.  I need to write a little about the trip sometime. 

Death Valley

A few quick edits from my latest trip to Death Valley

Singer Songwriter

When I was younger I never had crushes on TV or movie stars.  Still don’t.  Just now for this post I tried to think of the name of any TV or movie star I thought was attractive.  I could not think of any.  That might say more about my memory or the fact I am terrible with names but I think it’s because I have never found a TV or movie star attractive enough to bother to remember their name.  If asked while watching a movie if I find the actress good looking or not I’m sure there are plenty I would answer “yes she’s good looking.”  But I view the characters in movies as fake and therefore I don’t find them attractive.  Although they might be good looking, I can tell nothing about who they really are by watching their movies.  Just not attracted to make-believe characters.  To find someone attractive I need to know something about them.  Simply being good looking will not do.    

潘越雲 Performing in a Taipei hotel lounge June 18, 1983.

Singer songwriters are different.  I have found many singer songwriters attractive.  It must be because they share their stories, feelings and emotions in their songs and it’s like I get to know them a little. I know it’s impossible to really get to know someone through the songs they write and sing but it’s a lot more to go on than someone pretending to be someone else in front of a camera.  

I still find many singer songwriters attractive but when I was younger you could go as far as saying I had a crush on one, 潘越雲 (Pan Yue-Yun).  When I was 21 I spent the summer in Taiwan.  I bought many cheap pirated cassette tapes in hopes of finding some Chinese artists that I liked.  To help learn Chinese I would translate the lyrics of songs I particularly liked.  It didn’t take long to discover 潘越雲 and she soon became my favorite.  She has a beautiful voice and if I remember correctly she wrote many of the songs she sang.  I not only bought pirated tapes of all her albums (so I could listen to them on an old cassette player I had in Taiwan), but I also bought official vinyl copies of all her albums so I could listen to good quality recordings when I got back home.  

One day while on a bus in Taipei I spotted her name written on a sign outside a hotel.  I quickly read the rest of the sign the best I could.  She was going to be performing at this hotel the following week.  I don’t remember if I got off the bus at the next stop and went to the hotel or just jotted down the name of the hotel and called them later.  I do remember inquiring about tickets.  I wanted to make sure I got to see her.  I was told there were no tickets and she would be performing in the hotel lounge.  She was a very popular star in Taiwan.  Everyone knew who she was.  I often heard her songs playing in stores and I watched her music videos on TV in the evenings.  I worried that I would not be able to get into the show.  

On the day of the show I was prepared.  I got there very early.  I brought along my camera as well as one of her albums and a marker in case I got the opportunity for an autograph.  The lounge was not very big and just a few people were there.  I took a seat at a bar that wrapped around the piano and stage.  I figured I better order something to eat or drink.  I got the cheapest thing they had, fried rice and tea.  I ate as slow as I possible could to kill time before the performance started.  The lounge never did fill up.  There were probably no more than a dozen people there when 潘越雲 came out to perform.  She sat at the piano just a few feet away but played the guitar.  I thought she would be singing songs from her albums but she didn't perform any of her hit songs.  Her set consisted of only western songs all sung in English.  Her voice was amazing and I appreciated her talents even more when I saw she played guitar too.  

When she stood up to walk off stage I held out the album and in Chinese asked her if I could get an autograph.  She said yes but but she needed to put her guitar away first.  A minute later she came out and sat next to me and asked me something.  What I was doing in Taiwan, how did I learn Chinese or something like that.  I was not expecting this.  I was  so nervous and tongue tied.  I had no idea what to say.  I know we spoke a little.  Some in English, some in Chinese.  Mostly I remember the thoughts racing through my head “What should I say… what should I do… stop shaking… come on say something… ask her something…ahhh, what should I say!”  I’m pretty sure whatever I did say was uninteresting and a bit incoherent.  After a few minutes I got the impression she just gave up trying to have a conversation with me.  She autographed the album, thanked me for coming to the show and went backstage.  
My head was still spinning but I knew I was an idiot.  “Why didn’t you say something intelligent? Why couldn’t you ask her a thoughtful question?  Why didn’t you just offer to buy her a drink? You're such a fool!”  

Autographed album cover

She was scheduled to perform at the same hotel later that month as well.  On my 22nd birthday I went to see her perform again.  It went pretty much like the first show except I didn’t bring my camera or an album.  There weren’t many people at that show either and I’ve never understood why.  I didn’t say anything to her when the show ended.  Even after days of thinking about it I still didn’t know what to say to her and I knew I would still be so flustered nothing would come out right no matter how much I rehearsed it.  

As I was leaving the hotel a bellboy stopped me near the front door and started talking to me.  Just then 潘越雲 walked by escorted by two men who looked like body guards. She slowed, looked over her shoulder, caught my eye and said “再見” (see you later).  

My knees buckled.  

The bellboy was impressed.  “You know her!”  

I watched her walk out, get into a waiting car and disappear in to the night.