That’s not to say I wasn’t familiar with what Yosemite had to offer a landscape photographer, however. Photography legend and naturalist Ansel Adams did much of his most famous and best work here, including shots of such landmarks as Half Dome and El Capitan.

So, it was a natural destination for the first leg of my trip.

Yosemite National Park

After departing from Mono Lake, it didn’t take long to find myself pulling off to the side of the road and grabbing my camera. It probably took me three times longer to get to the park entrance than it should have because I couldn’t keep myself from stopping to take more photos. This pattern held true the entire time I was at the park.

I spent roughly 10 hours driving through the park (stop and go, really), both through the less-traveled Tioga Pass route as well as the popular valley areas further south.

There isn’t much that can be said about Yosemite beyond what the pictures themselves show.

Sunny day in Yosemite

Teapot Dome at Yosemite

Frozen stream at Yosemite

Half Dome in the distance

El Capitan

Half Dome near sunset

Twilight in Yosemite

It was a long day - 10 hours or so - and I took somewhere near 700 photos of just Yosemite alone. Be it the excellent lighting conditions or the sheer beauty of the landscape, I was consistently quite happy with the results (normally I have to throw out at least half of my shots right off the bat for being too blurry or other technical defects, but here the real challenge was in choosing which I liked the most).

If you’d like to review more photographs from Yosemite, you may do so in the Gallery.

This is a trip that I’ve done many times but - due to my (as of October 10th) lack of a job and the fact that I would be traveling alone - I decided to take a bit of a detour and drive up highway 395 instead of Interstate 5.

What’s funny is that, years ago (when I still lived in Kennewick), I actually lived about a mile from U.S. Route 395. Now - over a thousand miles away in California - I am still only about 20 miles or so from the same highway.

I’ve made this trip before, but this time I decided to do some photography in the eastern Sierra Nevada mountains - specifically, Mono Lake and Yosemite National Park. Both are pretty much a straight shot north for me.

My first priority was to get as close as possible to Mono Lake so that I could get started very early in the morning. After a drive of 350 miles or so, I stopped off in Lee Vining, CA for the night. Remarkably, the southernmost stop in my drive was also by far the coldest (below freezing at night - I had to be careful not to slip on ice as I went to and from my room).

Early the next morning, I packed up and left for the lake.

Mono Lake

The view at Mono Lake, as I arrived, was astounding.

Mono Lake is a bit unusual in a few respects. It is a salt water lake with unusually high alkalinity, and for this reason does not contain any native fish species (though it does have, curiously enough, its own species of brine shrimp - sea monkeys!). This is also responsible for the odd “lake foam” that lines the lake’s shore.

Another interesting feature are the tufa towers, formed of calcium carbonate, which rise from the surface of the lake. Combined with the morning fog, these towers feature an otherworldly appearance.

I was only able to photograph a very small area on its western shore - some day, I’d like to return and spend a little more time capturing it from different locations.

After an hour or so, I packed up and left the lake for Yosemite. More on that shortly. In the meantime, you can review more Mono Lake photographs in the Gallery.

Of course, the actual reasons why so many people opposed the bill - the fact that it rewarded bad behavior on Wall Street, did not address the ridiculous compensation packages given to these firms’ managers and did nothing to stop a continuing wave of home foreclosures - were completely unaddressed.

In every rational sense this is the same bill that was rejected earlier this week.

Needless to say, an ugly bit of political theater was played against the American people this week.

Here’s the final tally of those House members who took part in selling our country out by voting for the bill.

As much as I’d like to celebrate this news, the sad fact is that it’s likely that a slightly amended version of the bill will be put up for a vote later this week. And, by “slightly amended”, I mean a bill that pretty much does the same exact thing - with the sole exception of also enriching a handful of key Congressional districts in some form or fashion.

I do note, however, that my Congress-critter David Dreier (R) from San Dimas voted for the bill. I should also note that he is running for re-election this year.

Update: I sent an email to Russ Warner - Democratic challenger to David Dreier for this election - asking him what his position is on the bail-out. Here’s an article that goes into some detail on the campaign so far.

After 9 and a half years working at DreamHost, I have decided to leave (effective October 10th). This was due to a handful of reasons, but the long-and-short of it is that this is a long time to work anywhere and I figured that it wouldn’t hurt to try something new.

My immediate plan is to go back to school full-time and finish up what I started so long ago (a degree - maybe even two!). Longer term, I have some ideas swirling around in my head and projects that I’ve not had a chance to invest much time on. More on that soon (this is related to the somewhat upbeat post on creative pursuits I made a while back).

It goes without saying that I am going to miss this company. I spent pretty much my entire professional life there, met all sorts of great people (some of whom are reading this weblog right now!) and I’m leaving with a ton of crazy stories to tell.

And - haters be damned - I plan to forever host my stuff here. Makes sense: Through pure luck I managed to end up on a server that almost never goes down.

Looking at this, it seems to me that a lot of people are confusing the problem with the solution.

In a free market economy, sheer ineptitude and recklessness are supposed to lead to financial ruin. By bailing out these firms by taking on their unwanted assets, the Bush Administration - and their enablers in Congress - are essentially sending the message that such behavior is not only acceptable - it is to be rewarded.

So much for fiscal conservatism.

Of course, that is not to say that there wouldn’t be unintended fall-out if these firms take the hit. While the talk of lending grinding to a halt is ridiculous (interest rates rising in order to mitigate additional risk and existing liabilities is not the same as ‘grinding to a halt’), people will of course be impacted. I will be impacted.

But, once you look past the current political season and into the long term, the impact of extending a safety net to the most foolish among the Wall Street elite will be much, much more costly - and likely just the first of many costly interventions by the Federal government. Once these sorts of things start, they never seem to go away.

I’m especially annoyed at the degree in which this is being railroaded through Congress by the Bush Administration, as well as the degree of politics being played by all involved - natural, considering that we’re in the latter stages of a hotly contested election season, but still incredibly unfortunate. No matter how urgent the situation is, taking on $700 billion dollars in debt - roughly the same amount we’ve spent on the Iraq war over the last five years - merits considerable discussion and review.

I will even go so far as to say that Congressional members should first go home and face their constituencies - looking them in the eye and addressing their concerns - so that they understand the full meaning behind and consequences of what they are about to do.

As an aside, I’m also none too happy with John McCain at the moment. Far be it from a sign of leadership, his request to suspend Friday’s debate with Barack Obama is a blatantly political move and a wrong one at that. There is nothing leader-like or Presidential in dodging what will likely be tough questions on his proposed economic policies and stance on this matter. This is precisely the time that we as voters need to know where our future President stands.

While I’m largely opposed to Obama’s policies on the economy and a number of other matters, at least he has the balls to stand up before the American public and let them be aired.