Caveman Orrick's Sinkhole

New Career Turn

2009-12-24T04:09:34Z

I took up singing standards this summer and got my first paid gig in front of 300+ people.
Check out some of the covers I did over the last month at http://www.myspace.com/frankmcdonough
Here's a vid of me doing "The Christmas Song" Nat King Cole style:

Images From Where I Work

2008-12-13T06:54:23Z

I get paid to take pictures and post them on he web (among other things).
I usually don't post my work pix, but I found this batch I just took to be really nice.
Check em out here:
http://arboretum.org/index.cfm?fuseaction=getFrontPageFeature&catagory=home&FeatureID=69943f9a-1020-4f21-860d-72c0c4511971&TypeID=1&CFID=582197&CFTOKEN=42993825

Relaxing with fish.

2008-11-19T07:39:36Z

Unintentionally Disturbing

cavemanorrick @ 2008-10-15T22:42:00

2008-10-16T05:44:41Z

They over-emphasized the knife thing :(

History Channel

2008-04-14T07:21:12Z

Good god, I did it! I actually jumped on a trampoline, jumped up off the same trampoline onto the ground, and during that jump stuffed a basketball into a basketball hoop. I did this all while explaining how my actions were an analogy for photosynthesis.

I'll be on the 'Universe' series. They told me my segment will air in late May or early June.

I'll Be On The History Channel

2008-04-03T06:16:11Z

I'm going to host a segment of the History Channel show 'Universe'
. They said they wanted something more than talking heads and gave an example of one of their guests, an astronomer I think, windsurfing (the man's hobby) to illustrate a point about solar winds.

My subject is light and plants, so I suggested that I jump on a trampoline and stuff basketballs through a hoop as an analogy (a very rough one) for photosynthesis.

They're delivering the trampoline to my work tomorrow so I can practice.

I rough cut my documentary; it has ways to go still. I was editing on Adobe Premiere all day and saving my edits when the application crashed.

I lost all my work.

My Documentary

2008-01-17T03:00:23Z

I had a great subject for a documentary handed to me today. Lew Watanabe is a garden designer who uses granite sculptures in his designs. Not only is he considered a creative genius by his peers but he has mentored many garden designers as well. His life story is particularly compelling because he slipped and fell on one of his granite sculptures and became a paraplegic as a result. This has not stopped or embittered him at all, and he is doing his best work at the present. I'll be following him as he designs a garden, and I'll be interviewing his friends and students.

I hope that this hasn't already been done.

cavemanorrick @ 2008-01-16T00:33:00

2008-01-16T08:36:43Z

I have just started taking a documentary film class at Art Center School of Design in Pasadena. From what I can tell already it's going to be kick ass. The professor teaching the class also teaches at USC film school.

I'm so freacking stoked.

cavemanorrick @ 2007-08-28T16:08:00

2007-08-28T23:11:31Z

From the 2007 NSS Convention

2007 NSS Convention Photos

2007-08-01T05:29:40Z

Hoosier Daddy

2007-07-21T02:48:53Z

Convention bound :)

Sailing, sailing...

2007-07-01T03:02:15Z

Today I went sailing with my daughter Angela. I thought I knew how to sail, I'd sailed once when I was 18; learned how to tack and race etc. We rented a 14 foot long capri sailboat

Since I hadn't been sailing in a while (30 years), and my daughter had not sailed at all I thought it might be a good idea to practice some tacking in one of the less busy side inlets of the marina. This was a bad decision. The side inlet we chose was in a wind shadow and didn't have enough wind to power the sluggish, lead keeled boat. I could get into a big blow by blow of what happened but I'll let my GPS track do the talking for me. Below is my GPS track superimposed on a Google Earth image of the side inlet. The lines indicate the path of our boat as we struggled to sail out of the becalmed channel.
After almost an hour and a half of making no progress trying to tack against the anemic breeze we became extremely frustrated, and I was wondering if I really did learn to sail 30 years ago. Oh, and my temporary teeth kept falling out.

So I gave up in frustration, parking the boat at a nearby guest slip and, at the urging of my daughter, called the boat rental company to get rescued. While we were waiting a crusty old sea salt who had tried earlier to give us sailing instruction from shore while we were stuck endlessly trying to tack made a plea to me and my daughter not to give up trying, or as he put it "get back on the horse, or in this case the sailboat and don't give up." I was immediately motivated to return to the struggle because I was challenged by a total stranger -doesn't take much to get me going.

However Angela was a little more cautious, and very frustrated, luckily the crusty sea salt's admonitions had the same effect on her.

She jumped into the boat with me to give it another try, Just as she got back in the capri the tow boat from the rental company arrived. The operator offered to tow us back but then added "this inlet here is impossible to get out of once you get in it, I've been stuck here twice myself, why don't you give the sailing another try, I'll tow you out to the main channel so you pick up a decent breeze." We were both excited about giving sailing another try.

The boat-rental guy towed us out into the main channel, our sails filled with the strong coastal breeze, and we were off. We were sailing. All the vain attempts at tacking and the advice from the crusty old salt on how to properly trim our sails paid off. We successfully tacked up the main inlet and raced back down to the rental pier with no problems at all. Below is a picture of Angela at the tiller of the boat, navigating it expertly towards the entrance of the marina. On the way home we listened to sea shanties on Angela's iPod.

Thimbleberry

2007-06-22T05:36:08Z

This has got to be one of the smallest, squeeziest caves I've ever visited. I had to take my helmet off to get out of this entrance.

Post or Die

2007-06-21T08:42:41Z

This blog is dying, but I can't afford to give it a funeral, so I'm going to give it life support.
Breathe blog, breathe, exhale a heady rush of stygian verbiage that you may envelope the world in your disquieting revelation.

PisgahPalooza II

2007-04-15T02:34:32Z

Took my friend Patrick to Pisgah for his first time caving ever. Patrick did OK for just having been laid up from an auto accident for that last 6 months (he got into the accident the weekend we originally planned to go to Pisgah). Russ and Liz Harter met us there.

I haven't a kew.

2007-04-12T20:20:59Z

I was in line at Ralph’s and the checker asked if I had any coupons. She pronounced it like "coo pons."

Now, since I was a small child I've heard everybody I know of and people on TV pronounce it like "kew-pons," or "keeyou-pons." I brought this up to her and she started to get confused too because she had heard it both ways but was tought to pronounce it as "koo-pons." The next day I was at "Bed Bath & Beyond" buying misc. stuff that divorced guys my age find we have to buy when we re-enter the dating pool, you know, matching bed-sets, wine glasses, cutlery, etc., and the cute 28 year old Thai clerk asks me if I have any "coo-pons."

So what gives? Why has the pronunciation changed since I was a kid? Like every perplexed American with an issue that has to do with the English language I went to reference that is above reproach... the Internet.

Here's what I found on the American Heritage Dictionary site:

This word, which was borrowed from French in the 19th century, was originally pronounced (ku´pon´´). The variant pronunciation (kyu´pon´´) developed in American English perhaps through association with words such as cube, cupid, and cute. Both pronunciations are acceptable.

So that's it, it makes sense. Both of the Clerks spoke English as a second language, and probably learned our language either in their native countries or through a correspondence course, hence the "British" pronunciation.

Given the number of immigrants we have I wonder if British English will one day replace American English as the lingua franca of the United States?

That would be a coup for the English wouldn't it? Or would it be the French?

More Guads Beauty

2007-02-17T06:00:37Z

I made this video, check out how I used google earth!

2007-02-12T01:11:32Z

Caving in the Guads

2007-01-28T07:47:13Z

Here's just a snippet of video from the SoCal grotto's October 2006 Guads trip.

Frost at the Arboretum

2007-01-26T06:51:55Z

And I'm not religious

2007-01-24T06:47:17Z

You know the Bible 86%!

Wow! You are awesome! You are a true Biblical scholar, not just a hearer but a personal reader! The books, the characters, the events, the verses - you know it all! You are fantastic!

Ultimate Bible Quiz
Create MySpace Quizzes

Made In Bangladesh

2007-01-15T18:38:22Z

I'm doing laundry today and in the course of figuring out how to correctly wash my clothes I read most of the labels on all my good shirts and pants. 90% of them were manufactured in Bangladesh, the rest in the Dominican Republic.

They're all very well made brand name items. It struck me as I was putting them into the dryer and admiring their workmaship: would the person who put this together so deftly (ok, if it was computer manufactured, the person attended to the process and made sure everything went well) be able to hold something as well made from my country or from myself personaly in their lifetime?

Something besides guns, landmines, hand-grenades and crappy foriegn policy?

What do I have to give back? What contribution that I've made can benefit them?

Now I'm not one of those who think that it's best to live simply so that others can simply live. In my opinion that translates into 'become poor so that others can be poor too;' not only is it a diservice to yourself, but that idea goes a long way in preventing prosperity from spreading to others. It's really very selfish. But I am just starting think in terms of how what I do, make, or create can be of maximum benefit to those around me.

Funny, I belong to an organization that espouses that very sentiment, yet I am just now starting to ponder it in my own life.

Funny Spiders on Drugs

2007-01-05T22:09:55Z

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sHzdsFiBbFc

Pisgahpalooza

2006-12-31T23:37:48Z

Went to the annual Pisgah lava-flow tubefest. Took my niece Christina and my nephew Matthew for their second visit to the tubes. Great day of caving, although I completely missed hanging out with most of the people who were on the trip because I got there early and started caving early. Checked out the almost 1 kilometer long sp9 cave and then hiked a grueling half mile to Owl cave. No matter how much I think I'll get tired or bored with these caves I still manage to have a good time, as did my niece and nephew.

	The Lightgiver

	Inspiration
	Christina
	Christina
	Sand-tite Part of the Sp9 passage contained these small but unusual stalactites made of sand.
	Sand-tite Allan Rice inspects speleothem made of sand.
	Sand-tite Close up.
	Your caption here.

	Matthew
	Newly discovered passage.
	Owl Cave Entrance
	Owl Cave Entrance
	Checking a huge collapse pit.
	Checking a huge collapse pit.
	Christina
	Christina and Sandtite.
	Christina and Sandtite.

My Lookalikes

2006-12-14T17:35:09Z