Well, maybe we need to step back with a little more distance. What does this mean? Yet again, we have a dog smoking a cigarette.

Did I say "random"? My mistake. "Random" is a myth. There are no accidents. We need only to step back far enough to gain the required perspective in order to see the Big Picture. To see how these "random" spots really form the image that will lift us out of the ruts of ignorance we have formed for ourselves. Behold, the image is forming as I speak ...

And now, let us have the spots float in a seemingly aimless and random pattern in space without the constricting and imprisoning grid lines of Western thought.

This is a sad edition of the UML series. My very own UML vehicle is ailing and I'm too broke to really give it the kind of repair work it deserves. So for the time being, my Fabulous Olds will be limited to short runs within the municipality of my small village. It goes through sort of a chugging motion when I stop at lights with the brakes on. Once I put it in park (it's an automatic) it seems OK. One passenger commented that the chug-chug motion was good for massaging sore muscles in the back, so perhaps I have an economic opportunity here in providing a mobile back massage unit.

Anyway, here are the UMLs I have spotted since UML1 and UML2. I believe I have a combined listing of about 6 or 7 percent of all UMLs. This chart only displays those UMLs I saw during this round-- 032, 049, 065, 070, 086, 152, 256, 261, 295, 303, 321, 343, 383, 428, 429, 482, 608, 639, 703, 708, 816, 880, 926, 966, 967, 974, 976.

I thought this article was both interesting and frightening at the same time.  Here is another from the TSA website.

Thanks for the music, Max. I spent a lot of late nights under the influence of you and your friends.

Enjoy a fun morning out with other Olympia Parks Volunteers on Saturday, August 18 from 9-noon at Friendly Grove Park. We'll be working on mulch circles to protect young, vulnerable trees at Friendly Grove. As always, tools and refreshments will be provided. Everyone is welcome. Those under 18 need written, parental permission, under 14 must be accompanied by a parent or guardian. We will meet in the parking lot of Friendly Grove Park - 2316 Friendly Grove Rd NE - in Olympia.

Mrs and I went to see Hairspray last week in Ocean Shores (great little theater, cheap prices, no big crowds).  I highly recommend this movie.

If you are a fan of foreign films and don't like the lack of subtitles or humor that takes a rocket scientist to understand, this is not the movie for you. On the other hand, if you were wondering what John Travolta would pull off next, don't miss it.

The young lady in the lead role (Nicky Blonsky) is a newcomer and holds her own with Travolta, Christopher Walken, Michelle Pfeifer, Queen Latifa and others.  Her smile and energy is infectious.

Walken is Blonsky's father (and Travolta's husband!!!) who owns a gag joke store.  The scene with he and Pfeifer, as she's trying to come on to him, is priceless, as is the "love scene" with Travolta.

Queen Latifa heads part of the cast as an purposefully obnoxious MC of the "Negro" version of the dance show on TV in Baltimore in the early 1960s, when segregation was still vogue.  She takes you to a new dimension, though, as she sings a freedom song as they picket the city and TV studio where management refuses to integrate the kids dance show.  Watch closely for the tears running down her cheek as she sings.  Something tells me this was not contrived - just pure emotion of the message of her song.

Here’s the news about Camp Quixote: There is none.

With only the minor stress and strains anyone would endure on moving day, Olympia’s mobile tent city for the homeless found its way to a new home at St. John’s Episcopal Church, Capitol Way at 20th Ave. Thursday. No newspaper reporter or photographer sightings. The Olympian published only a small brief on the move in Thursday’s paper.

Remember Camp Quixote’s first moving day in February? The one met at dawn by a squad of OPD’s finest clad in riot gear?

Things changed. The camp was befriended by people of faith, first the Unitarian Universalist Church on Olympia’s west side through mid-May, then The United Churches at Capitol Way and 11th Ave., both hosting the camp in 90-day stints. Residents came and went, many finding work and a secure place to live. A few had to be evicted. A couple wed in the camp in July.