Uncanny Valley

I am livid about this place. I just heard about it a month ago, and was super-excited to check it out. I went to the Pulgas Water Temple, which is supposedly not nearly as cool, and that was cool, so i was amped up to see the one in Sunol. I planned a whole day off around a visit, due to the draconian hours. But apparently they had MLK day off too. Riddle me this though: Why is this only open on weekdays, and at times when one can’t even skip out of work early to visit? It seems like they only want the terrorists who can take a day off or don’t have jobs to get access, and not normal people. This above and beyond the security cameras and so forth all around. Apparently those won’t foil terrorists on weekends and holidays.

Course if I were a terrorist, I’d just go for the unprotected reservoirs all around and not the temple which would have too many dog walkers to leave me in peace. But that’s just me. It’s not even like anyone can get here from public transportation. Heck, most people don’t even know this place exists. I told you it took me years to learn about it, and even when I told the chatty server at the vegan Japanese restaurant that we we’re going to the water temple he assumed it was the one on the peninsula: He didn’t even know about the one way out in Sunol. I don’t think many people even know where Sunol is either.

I’m also peeved at Save Our Sunol, who’s big agenda after getting the place reopened (thanks for that much atleast) is to stop a quarry from being built next door. Now I’m sure that will be an eyesore, but you know what ruins my panoramic view? These huge bars and fences in the way. Sure wish I had a nice water temple to look at. That would be way cool.

So this is in the ‘defunct’ section because it is dead to me. I know maybe three people can get to see this place, but until normal people can,it’s dead to me. Sorry Sunol.

Back in the day when a large public works project was undergone, people expected it to look nice afterwards. People still do in pockets like New Mexico, but in many places Bauhaus has taken over. Fortunately some places like this survive, and remind us how things don’t have to look good, but they should.

This is one of two water temples, the other one in Sunol rumoured to be the more beauteous of the two. This one has slightly less-restrictive hours of access, with just the parking lot and not the whole place being closed on weekends. Supposedly parking on the road is a no-no, but I wasn’t hassled and I wasn’t the only one. On certain Sundays, the road is closed to cars, so you’d have to walk 3.5 km extra then.

The red tape here is annoying. My theory is that it’s some misguided 911 paranoia. Especially since drinking water does not go through here anymore, since the plant was built across the road. Still, I suppose I should be grateful somewhat as the temple was entirely inaccessible to the public until 25 October 2004. Baby steps, I guess.

What else can I say about this place but that it’s pretty and peaceful? I did see a small herd of Mule deer outside the fence, a few of which motionlessly kept watch of my progress to the portable toilets.

If you’ve read my previous posts on labyrinths you will know I only grudgingly accept the modern terminology. A labyrinth differs from a maze because the former has only one path, and the latter forks. Well this labyrinth has a branch, as seen in my photo above. Sure, it’s only a dead-end path that goes for about 25 cm. Though the nice people at the church have described it as a “rest stop.”

I had been getting a little tired of the same old circle-shaped labyrinths, so I was happy that this one was in a half-oval shape. The church is very pretty as well, without being ornate (it is Protestant, after all). Overall, a very nice place.

The labyrinth is on the second floor, and is open as long as there isn’t any other event going on there.

Originally this chapel had no good way to get to the choir loft. If a normal staircase were put in, it would take up most of the chapel, and something better than a ladder was needed. Putting off rebuilding the loft, the Sisters of Loretto’s Novena prayed to the patron saint of carpentry, St. Joseph. 9 days later a man appeared on a donkey, built a spiral stairway without a banister, and left without payment.

I’m not sure what the miracle is precisely. The stairway is a little rickety, and the only way you can stand on it is if you are posing for wedding pictures. Maybe it’s just the whole power-of-prayer thing.

The chapel is beautiful, and the staircase has an odd DNA-evoking wabisabi to it. Afterwards, you get moved into the gift shop. It kind of reminded me of rides at themeparks where you have to wade through the gift shop to leave. Not that it was a horrible shop, I just don’t really like that tactic.

Loretto also has an Inn next door. The staircases there are non-miraculous.

One labyrinth is basically the same as another to me. I don’t get too spiritual about them as many others do, and I’m always a little disappointed that they aren’t mazes.

Yet I still enjoy visiting them. I enjoy trying to find where they are, hiking out to them, looking at the scenery, and zig-zagging along the labyrinth’s path. Sure, maybe due to their abundance, they should be on their own site (and there are those out there for them), but they share some important things with the other attractions on this site: They are hidden somewhat from the mainstream, and they are fun.

That said, this labyrinth is in old quarry in a regional park (Sibley Volcanic Regional Preserve). Understandably, the paths are demarcated with rocks. There is one main circular labyrinth in the center of the pit, and a smaller one on a ledge behind it. The North end of the larger labyrinth is a puddle/pond in the rainy season in which newts and other critters breed in, so watch your steps.

The views on the drive here are fantastic, and continue on foot on the trail. From the ranger station take the Round Top Loop Trail to the quarry pit (labeled 4 on the brochures and maps on the site). It’s about a ½ mile trek involving some small hills. Somehow I did not realise the trail was a loop, and went back the way I came, but if you go counterclockwise you will need to go past a gate for grazing animals. I’d imagine there would be one on the other side as well though.

Note no dogs are allowed at the labyrinth.

This labyrinth is a healthy walk from Land’s End where the U.S.S. San Francisco Memorial is. You can either go down the stairs by the Memorial to get to the Coastal Trail, or go up Camino del Mar as it becomes a train and go down the next set of stairs. Basically when you are facing the ocean head Northeast/left. You’ll see a sign and the first instance you can go downhill/makai from the Coastal Trail, and this will point you towards Mile Rock Beach. This is where you want to go. Basically it’s the piece of land closest to that foghorn/lighthouse that’s in the Golden Gate Straights (Mile Rock Light). The labyrinth is above the beach atop a small cliff, with a good panoramic view that includes the Golden Gate Bridge.

The labyrinth is a single winding path with no forks that is made up of rocks and gravel. I think the walk down here was just as fun as the labyrinth itself.

There is no camping allowed here, and all pets must be on a leash.

I was raised Catholic. Many kids in my church raised money to go to MeÄ‘ugorje, Herzegovina and see the Marian apparition there. Even then I was a bit skeptical. I still keep an open mind, even though I have very much lapsed as far as being a Catholic. Sure it can always be pareidolia, but if people believe in all these other ghosts, why can’t Mary also come back from the beyond?

But, since I have no first-hand experience I can’t really give much of an informed opinion. Yes, even though I visited the cemetery and the trees where a vision appeared, I think I missed the boat. The person at the office informed me and my sister (after consulting with unseen individuals in the back) that the tree in question is in section D. So we putter over after checking out the Showfolks Memorial in another section. There are only two trees in section D, and neither one had anything that appeared to look like anything at all. We went to section E across the drive and didn’t see anything better than the above image. Supposedly the cemetery has or had two trees with Marian apparitions in them, but we found bupkis.

But I’m glad I went anyways. Part of why I put this site together is to get some real facts out there. If something disappears, people should know. And if I miss something, you can always post and let everyone know. So that’s my story.

Joshua Norton, an otherwise normal businessman in 19th century San Francisco one day became emperor. I don’t think there was a coronation or anything, but it worked out well because the His Imperial Majesty’s business interests had just taken a swan dive. There was, however, an imperial proclamation printed in many San Francisco papers on 17 September 1859 declaring Norton I emperor.

His Imperial Majesty was much esteemed the city, wandering around his domain in a blue and gold suit with a feather in his hat. Many citizens would pay for His Imperial Majesty’s meals, drinks, and even lodging. In return, Emperor Norton made decrees calling for the dissolution of congress and for the creation of a bridge connecting San Francisco and Oakland. I hear word that finally the Bay Bridge is to be renamed in his honor.

Every year, people still come here to celebrate His Imperial Majesty’s birthday on 7 January. Or thereabouts. Noone actually knows his actual birthdate.

Around the grave are the graves of other emperors and empresses. I’m not sure what their deal is, but E Clampus Vitus, a shadowy absurdist brotherhood what organizes the birthday fests.

To get to the grave you can get a map in the main office. His Imperial Majesty is in the Southwest of the cemetery, in section H. You will see a gravestone with a large ball on top. Next to that is the grave of the widowed Empress, and behind that is His Imperial Majesty’s stone.

I read a lot about the difference between a labyrinth and maze. They would like you to believe that a labyrinth is just a single windy path with no options, and a maze has forking and you can actually get lost in. However, the word labyrinth comes from the olde tale about the Minotaur. King Minos of Crete hid his beastly stepchild in the Labyrinth, and there it stayed until Theseus snuck in to kill the Minotaur. Now at this point, the proper-noun Labyrinth could be a branching maze or a windy lover-cased labyrinth. It could even be a big pit, as the only clues we have is that those sacrificed to the Minotaur can not escape.

Note my use of the word clue, as this word is also derived from this myth of the Minotaur. Theseus used a ball of yarn, known as a clue so as to not get lost in the Labyrinth. Now I don’t know about you, but if the Labyrinth were a labyrinth and not a maze, one wouldn’t need a ball of yarn to find a way out. One could simply turn around and go back.

Sure, maybe Theseus just thought it were a maze and it really was a labyrinth when he actually got there. If that were the case though, I don’t think we would remember the story after two millennia about how Theseus was overprepared and threw his useless string away. Let alone would we still be using the word for his string today.

Ok, now that that’s off my chest, the two things here (the indoor one and the outdoor one) are the winding-path labyrinth type: no choices involved. But the point isn’t to get lost, it is to contemplate life’s twisty road in an Episcopal form of mindful meditation. Not that you have to take this on as a spiritual thing, but you should be aware of that and respect others that will be working towards illumination. I myself and not religious, but while wandering I found the experience fun and soothing at the same time. The ambient organ music inside didn’t hurt in that respect.

So while this may not be for everyone, it may surprise you. I love getting lost in mazes, and thought I’d be disappointed here, but was not. If you do think you need a little more, head downstairs to the crypt level and check out the shop. They have all sorts of labyrinth-related items (Labyrinth sarongs, anyone?). amoung the other religious paraphernalia.

Ok, I had resisted doing this for a while because I couldn’t find much solid evidence about this, but after looking again and again for the past few weeks and still not finding much, I need to make this page to hopefully attract some answers. It really bugs me how the Interweb can be a kilometer wide and a millimeter deep sometimes.

So first look at this image from google maps. Now I do not care if you think it looks more like Jim Morrison or some other hippy rather than Jesus, I really don’t. Posting a “No, it looks like…” comment is now officially like posting a ‘me too’ comment, but more annoying.

Now this is not a trick of the shadows of the clouds or whatnot, because there are no clouds. Google did not plant it either, because the same picture is on terraserver. So that means either EarthSat or the Department of Defense created this or it really exists. The DoD has fudged satellite images before (look at the roof of the White House) but this is in Peru, so I don’t think it’s that likely.

If this thing is real, it’s a bit more than four square kilometers. That’s not entirely out of the realm of possibility to be artificial, but the detail looks a bit difficult. It could be natural, as much as any other religious image found anywhere. If I were to wager at this point I’d say it would be human-made. There is one guy who agrees as well, but he doesn’t really provide much evidence to back it up.

But now we have a tentative name for this thing: “Perfil de Jesucristo” Maybe that’s what it’s really called, or maybe it’s just something else that that guy found and thought sounded good. That page says it’s near the town of Arequipa, which Mapquest can back up. The poster indicates that the formation is artificial, but the page cited does not support this. Also we have no other pictures to support that both Google and Peru4u are talking about the same thing. Sometimes it bugs me that noone else is a visual person.

So I have to so some googling. If one searched just for ‘Perfil de Jesucristo’ you get a lot of user profiles for people who’s handles are ‘Jesucristo.’ If you add ‘Peru’ you get more what you need, but if you add ‘-rioja’ to weed out the Argentine sights then you only get that one page on Peru4u and lots of blog posts. Hmmm…..

If I look for ‘Perfil de Cristo’ I see something indicating it is naturally-formed. But again, this isn’t much and this page doesn’t show any amazing faces in the rocks. How can there only be two pages on this huge image on the face (pun intended) of the planet? Maybe this formation isn’t really called the Perfil de (Jesu)cristo. Who knows. Maybe one of you can help? More brownie points given for actual pictures. I know this it too weird to just be pareidolia.

Image courtesy of Terraserver.com