#Rock Clubs On-Line
19 messages in this thread
Hi to All –
I was wondering. Has anybody considered or started a directory of
rock/mineral/fossil/etc clubs with e-mail addresses?
I have seen a lot of activity for the Fluorescent Mineral Society in this forum
by Rod Burroughs and Doug Mitchell. I am sure there must be other clubs
represented. In Doug Mitchell's downloads from the Internet, I have seen
several groups mentioned from around the world. There is no reason this
directory could not include anyone addressable through the Internet.
My society, the Mineralogical Society of Southern California, has several
members on-line with CompuServe and throughout the Internet community. All it
would require is one or more members to act as 'official' contacts. I would be
willing to be the contact for the MSSC.
Mineralogical Society of Southern California
PO Box 41027
Pasadena, CA 91104-8027 USA
e-mail to William W. Besse: 74727.1230@CompuServe.com
Interests: mineralogy and related sciences
I would also be interested in working on the project. That is if anyone thinks
this directory would be useful.
– Bill
Hi, Bill–
Such a database would certainly be valuable to the many who ask about the
collecting sites and shops of some area they will be visiting; rather than hope
a local is "listening" to their on-line post, they could be referred to someone
specific.
We have spoken before of beating on club officials to add E-addresses to club
rosters (I keep forgetting to beat on Rod about this before an FMS roster comes
out), but collecting and posting this database would be better for the
traveler.
Sharon Shea, administrator of "rocks-and-fossils" mail-list, just posted a
message to the list indicating a plan to collect club info (snail mail as well
as E-mail), as part of a planned gopher site.
Who else out there is willing to represent his/her club(s) on-line?
–Doug
Hi, Doug
> Who else out there is willing to represent his/her club(s) on-line?
Lanny and I are members of NW chapters of Friends of Mineralogy and Micro
Mounters Society. I can't speak for Lanny, and I probably won't be able to
attend any FM outings this year, but would be happy to represent the MMS
on-line. I can be reached here or at guyh@teleport.com.
Best, Guy
P.S. How has your winter been? A week ago we had 11 inches of snow – today,
low 60's and sunny – go figure….
Hi, Guy–
We had sub-freezing weather at about the same time, including a surprise
mineral deposit (ice) at rush hour, causing our annual citywide demolition
derby. I was too scared and too busy dodging to collect any samples… We have
also been getting some very nice days since.
–Doug
Hi, Doug
> We had sub-freezing weather at about the same time, including a surprise
> mineral deposit (ice) at rush hour, causing our annual citywide demolition
> derby.
Yeah, I noticed that the band of nastiness on the satellite map extended down
your way. I just was wondering how far south the 'mineral deposits' reached.
> … too busy dodging to collect any samples…
Our LAN administrator missed two days of work – he's originally from your neck
of the woods (well, San Diego) and has a 50 mile commute one-way, so no one
held it against him. <g>
Best, Guy
Doug,
I missed the beginning of this thread. Are you looking for members of
rock clubs?
Joe Hayes
Columbus (Ohio) Rock and Mineral Society
Hi, Joe–
Bill Besse made the excellent suggestion that we should collect a database of
E-mail addresses for people willing to represent their rockhound clubs. Among
other things, it would be handy for travelers seeking to connect with a club
where they will be visiting. It beats waiting until we can persuade all the
clubs to give E-addresses when providing contact info…
Any more folks out there willing to volunteer for an entry in this small but
growing database? Please give the club name and snailmail address as well as
E-address.
–Doug
Bill,
I have ranted and raved at the membership chairman of the Delaware Valley
Earth Science Science (Woodbury, NJ) to list members' email addresses in the
club's directory. So far no luck. I am the corresponding secretary of the
D.V.E.S.S., and you can reach me at this CIS address, or better yet, at
nschacht@omni.voicenet.com
The editor of our newsletter is an AOL'er, and I can post her email address as
well.
I made the same suggestion to the Friends of Mineralogy, and to my surprise,
the new national directory of the Friends of Mineralogy lists email addresses
for some of its members. So there's hope…
Although it's hard to imagine why some people are taking so long to adjust
and adapt to new communication techniques, like email, I have to remind myself
that my wife won't go near our computers. She is still traumatized by her
college fortran course!
If you are interested, I will check my email address book for the addresses
of other club officeers from around the country.
*****************************************
On another note, it looks as if I will have to be in southern California next
week. I am intrigued by the recent Rocks and Minerals article on the Pacoima
pegmatite. Is it a good collecting locality? Is it accessible? Any other
suggestions for localities around Los Angeles? I have to visit a professor of
epidemiology at the Univ. of Southern California on Friday. I was thinking of
going out on Thursday.
Nathan
Hi Nathan,
I gave up a couple years ago on the Pacoima Pegmatite locality. They said
you could not get in via the bottom of the canyon – blocked off. So I drove to
the top of the canyon & checked at the Ranger Station. They said they prefer
no-one go down there because of this & that excuse. I may disremember but I
recollect it to be in the neighborhood of 11 miles from the locked gate down
the Pacoima Canyon to the pegmatite locality crisscrossing the creek about 50
times. Might be 4-wheeling right now with all the rains recently. Of course,
the prize is zircon and allanite, along with quartz, mica (biotite), feldspar
and hornblende.
If you do not have Paul F. Patchick, Geologist's "A Remarkable Occurrence
of Allanite & Zircon Crystals From A Southern California Pegmatite, for you I
can get a copy. 😉
Fresh road cuts have been made on Kanan Dune Road & some successful
collecting activity has recently occurred at the 1.7mi. south of the freeway
site. Fossils? There are mountains of them 4 through 7 miles west of Topanga
Canyon Blvd. on Old Topanga Road. Excellent paved road all the way. Also some
pectolite localities along road cuts.
Call me – Rod
Hi, Nathan–
Rod neglected to mention the zircons in Pacoima Canyon are nicely fluorescent,
as are the bivalve fossils at the Topanga Canyon locale he refers to.
Are you interested in a longer trip up into the high desert? Maybe a 3-4 hour
drive from L.A. is the Princess Pat mine (in the Shadow Mts.?) (NW of Adelanto
off route 395), where specimens may have 4 colors of fluorescence (scheelite,
bright blue-white and yellow, caliche bright orange, hyalite bright green,
calcite dull red).
–Doug
Hi,
Glad to read your reply. I get a lot of the same responses in my society such
as "E-mail? Is that some sort of courier service? The majority (I think) of our
members still do not have computers. BUT, one member got a computer because of
e-mail – – It was the only way to keep in contact with her daughter at college!
As to Pacoima, I have been thinking a lot of it recently. Possibly it is open
now with all the rain. The closure was based on fire hazard. I will call the
Forest Service.
Call me when you get in and maybe I will go with you if it is open. (818)
814-2257 W, (818) 359-4488 H.
If it is not open, how about some nice lime-jello green fluorite at Felix
Fluorite in Azusa?
Bill
Bill,
Thanks for checking out the accessibility of Pacoima Canyon for me. I had
placed a call to the Rangers Station at the number in the Rocks and minerals
article, but got a recording (at 4:15pm local time!). The recording suggested
that the camp sites were open, which info I interpreted to mean that I could
get to the collecting site. After I got your email, I decided that I wouldn't
have time to figure out what was going on, so I decided I would go to Tick
Canyon instead. I tried to call you on Wednesday night, about 9pm your time,
but there was no answer.
The Azusa mine sounds interesting. Where is it? Does the fluorite
fluoresce? What are the associated minerals?
I did okay at the Tick Canyon locality. I have some vesicular basalt, which
I will go through with my hydraulic rock cutter to look for zeolites. I have
lots of howlite, and some ulexite, and othjer borates. On the east coast, this
is exotic stuff, and I have a lot of nice howlite to give away at my local rock
club meetings. I also got to squeeze in a nice visit with the Burroughs before
taking the red eye back to Philadelphia.
Thanks again.
Nathan
Hi,
Called the Forest Servive today.
They have no intention of opening the Pacoima Canyon Road and are surprised
anyone thought they would.
Bill
Bill,
As you will see from my other email to you, I got a recording telling me that
Santa Clarita Canyon Rd was closed, but it said nothing re the Pacoima Cyn Rd's
closure. I was confused, and couldn't reach you by phone, so I chose another
collecting site. I am still intrigued by the Pacoima pegmatites. Can you get
to the pegmatite if the Pacoima Cyn Rd is closed? (You know, by car, not by
heliocopter.)
Maybe in a month or so I will get back to LA, after the rain and before the
fires, and I will be able to get out to Pacoima. I'll let you and Rod know;
maybe we can take the hill by force if the Forest Rangers are feeling
protective.
Cheers.
Nathan
Hi, Nathan–
One can come at the pegmatite in Pacoima canyon from the lowlands, or by
circling around, passing near the summit of Mt. Gleason and then down into the
upper end of the canyon. The latter is the "back door" Rod referred to – I
might also call it the scenic route. I have gone up to Mt. Gleason for
stargazing on several occasions, but never made it to the zircons.
–Doug
Hi Bill…
As far as I know I'm the only online member of the American Opal Society and
will be glad to be on the email address list with my CIS ID, sorry I don't have
time to even consider the Inet or other services.
-Russ
Hi, Russ–
Thanks, I'll add you to the list I am collecting. Have you a snail-mail
address for Am. Opal Soc. handy?
What do you mean about not being able to handle Internet queries? People with
any Internet mail connection can send to you (your address is
76550.1366@compuserve.com) right now, and you can send to them. With the
recent reduction in mail rates in the standard pricing plan ($0.10 first 7500K
of a message, $0.02 each extra 7500K, $9.00/month free) you would have to be a
heavy correspondent to overrun the free monthly allowance.
–Doug
Hi Doug…
The snail mail address of the AOS is:
American Opal Society, Inc. P.O. Box 382 Anaheim, CA 92805
As for the internet (sorry but small "i" intended)…since you asked:
(getting on soap box)
Yes I know how to access inet and confess I use it occasionally to stay in
touch with dear friends who aren't on CIS. But the first inet message I ever
got came from one such friend via email through a Delphi gateway…
Imagine this, a friggin' chain letter! Want to guess how many screens I viewed
with the internet full screen address headers on a message that had been
appended annotated and forwarded about 40 times…each forward by the way
carried a small apology note so the whole thing was a monster of a message
(about 40k if I recall). I sat for over half an hour politely (for the sake of
my friend who later apologized explaining he had forwarded it to me without
reading it) looking at screen after screen of addresses spreckled with a series
of small notes saying something like "Jim" (Joe, Bob, Sally etc etc) "good
buddy, sorry to send this to you but I don't want to break the chain and get
bad luck, please read the important original message and forward to 5 email
friends. best regards…"
The message at the bottom was one of those stupid questionaires in the "Did You
Know…blah blah blah" vein. Following the questions was the patent chain
letter admonition about avoiding bad luck…
Well I say what Eric Clapton, Jack Bruce and Ginger Baker said so well back in
the '60's…"If it wasn't for baaaad Luck…I wouldn't have no luck at all!" I
trashed the note, did the best I could to tell my friend what a jerk I thought
he'd been and swore I would never purposely use the internet. That attitude is
purely prejudicial and I reserve the right to rescind it at any time (g), but I
keep hearing from CIS members in various forums who have venture out to the
inet. They almost always come back with the attitude that they like it here
better.
The scientific community (eg here) is notable in not sharing that dislike for
the inet (or, more gently, preference for CIS) and I understand I may be
depriving myself of a valuable source or contact method. I also realize it's
arogant on my part to be so closed minded but this is my stance at least until
further notice.
I also do a fair amount of emailing…eg on Prodigy during December of 1990
(the month before *P terminated their free email pricing) I sent a little over
1,300 email messages to our online club of about 18 motorcyclists. Obviously
that has been curtailed a LOT 😎 and I get by with a minimum these days.
As a point of information, I think you mistated the new email pricing
—> ($0.10 first 7500K of a message, $0.02 each extra 7500K, $9.00/month free)
I think the length of the message blocks is 7.5k not 7,500K (7 1/2 megs?).
I use the executive option off the standard pricing plan because I rarely if
ever go to the free areas, spending all my time online here, or the Audio,
Fishnet and mostly the RIDE (motorcycling) forum.
(off soap box)
Bet you wish you never asked now eh? 😎
I do appreciate your interest and concern. And thanks for working on the online
listing of Rock clubs…
-Russ
btw, I intend to post a report soon of the BLM geologist's talk concerning the
effects of the CDPA…I thought I'd get it written before this but I've now got
to get the Opal Society newsletter done first…
Hi, Russ–
Thanks for the address.
I have twice received chain letters by Internet mail, but that is out of many
hundreds of more worthwhile messages, not even counting the mail-lists. I
figure your chain letter on the first try was the bad luck you got for not
forwarding it (never mind causality, full speed ahead! :).
Thanks for catching my blooper on mail pricing; I would not want anyone running
too far with my slipped decimal numbers.
–Doug