Chehalem Watershed Report Card

The Chehalem watershed, part of the Willamette River basin, is located in the physical boundaries of Chehalem Valley. Located entirely within Yamhill County, Oregon, the watershed is bound by Chehalem Mountain in the north, Parrett Mountain in the east, the Red Hills of Dundee in the west, and the Willamette River in the south. The intent of this report card is to provide an overview of the Chehalem watershed and to chronicle recent watershed developments while establishing a baseline grading system.

Click here for the full Report Card

Graded over thirty-one different criteria, the Chehalem watershed garnered a low C average. Bolstered by especially positive marks with regard to the Yamhill Basin Council's influence and the workings of municipal facilities in Newberg, the watershed has local parties proven to be interested in its well-being. Urban and agricultural land usage alongside population growth challenges are generally being addressed with the watershed in mind in an above average manner, waiting to be proven successfully over time. Combined, these grades provide the spark and momentum to continue on such a trajectory in the face of obstacles.

The issues directly surrounding the aquatic waterways of the watershed received some of the lowest scores, taking company among the local state politicians judged poorly on pro-environmental votes. My primary rationale for such low marks on several of the waterway issues was the miniscule amount of historical or current quantitative data on several benchmarks. This concern is noted by several organizations, and until its remedy, progress with an integrated watershed management plan will suffer. With the grades generated due to current economic factors and the lack of encouraging federal funds for Yamhill County, there is reason to worry that such data collection and/or monitoring may not occur as needed in the near future.

A Wee Abacist

After a day of uncertainty at work, it was nice to change gears toward the relative solidity of mathematics, as explained by the little one. The boy sat me down and began explaining what he had taught himself during the course of the day. Amongst other things, it turns out that he had been using his traditional abacus to work out the Fibonacci sequence. After blowing my mind by describing Fibonacci sequences that appeared in his Cheerio intake, daily diaper changes, and late-night wakings, I reminded him to tread lightly when it comes to over analyzing things, particularly at his young age. He took a moment to measure such advice.

He then shook the frame and laughed as beads dashed to and fro, snapping against one another.

He proceeded to lick the beads, like a nourished tiger tending to its paw.

I didn't join him in the licking, but instead helped with the shaking festivities and then taught him how to flick individual beads across their wire path.

He seemed relieved to be escaping Arithmetica, and I felt better about not having to fake an understanding of the Fibonacci sequence.

Waxing in the Daylight

When it's February in Western Oregon, abundant cloud cover typically denies you a lot of opportunities to clearly view the moon. The past two days - nothing but clear skies. This has provided ample viewing of a moon that is a week away from being full again, even against a brightly lit daytime sky.

The boy has taken to saying "Mon" for moon. I tried getting him to say "brecciated lithosphere," but then he just got irritated with me.

I grabbed my camera and took a few shots of this afternoon's visitor in the sky. Considering I was a little shaky due to my coffee intake earlier, I got a pretty good capture without a tripod. You can clearly see the major lunar maria (dark spots) and many of the larger craters. Good omens.

Digital Media v. Natural Media

I grew up a Nintendo junkie. Alone or with friends, I could file hours away in front of the TV as the pixels scrolled from side to side. Before that, I learned how to compute on a Texas Instruments TI-99/4A. Countless hours trying to make BASIC roll dice.

I also spent an inordinate amount of time outdoors. Time reading. Time playing.

With my own child, I am already neck-deep in an internal battle about his immersion and consumption of digital culture. At nearly a year and a half old, he has an uncanny ability to manipulate remote controls and rearrange the desktop on my computer screen. He knows how to work a digital camera. He has something of a handle on how to play games on the Wii. He's no stranger to the television being on (typically as white noise).

Am I worried about having to pump him full of Aderall one day because I let him stare at the screen for a few minutes longer than I should have?

He has an amazing zest for books. His problem-solving tendencies astound me. His creativity expressed in blocks or chalk is awesome. 

He met his first snake today as we trekked down to the local creek. He was furious with me for holding him when we were at the water's edge, as he wanted to explore. He ran. He fell. He climbed. He splashed in the cold water. Blades of grass and woody shrubs were no match for his piqued interests.

These are the reasons I'm not worried.

Embedding a Google Profile Badge in Blogger

I have grown to really appreciate the usefulness of Google Profiles, and found that it's not too hard to insert a profile badge directly into Blogger. Should you care to do the same, here are a few steps that will get you there in no time.

1. Find your existing Google Profile or create a new one at http://www.google.com/profiles
   
   
2. Note your Google Profile ID, which is basically the last part of your Google Profile URL. My Google Profile URL is http://www.google.com/profiles/Spencer.Haley, which means my Google Profile ID is "Spencer.Haley." Unless you have customized your ID, it will probably be a long string of numbers. In either case, jot it down.
   
   
3. If you want to see what your profile badge looks like, go to http://www.google.com/s2/widgets/ProfileCard?uid=Spencer.Haley, replacing "Spencer.Haley" at the end with your own Google Profile ID.
   
   
4. In Blogger, go the Page Elements section of the Layout tab, click Add a Gadget, and select HTML/JavaScript.
   
   
5. In the Content box, insert the following code with your own Google Profile ID:
   
   <center><iframe src="http://www.google.com/s2/widgets/ProfileCard?uid=<GoogleProfileID>" width="100%" height="125" scrolling="no" style="border:0px solid"></iframe></center>
   
   
   
   
   
   
6. Save your work!

I found a few similar posts online that somewhat addressed this issue, but they seemed to be making the whole process much more complicated than it needed to be. The iframe (inline frame) tag simply displays the full contents of a web page in a frame of another. In this example, we're just framing the Google Profile badge page directly inside your blog.

While the lack of easy scaling is somewhat annoying, I can live with it. This is largely because my Google Profile (and subsequent badge) provides single sourcing updates to my "About Me" information and I can let Blogger continue dealing with the blogs themselves.