Waiting for rain
Many days of Svend's hard work have given us this nice stone waterway in our yard. Since it's been so dry its been the perfect time to do this work. Typically in the winter months this would be running with spring water. Photos by Sharon.

 

  posted by John : 7:01 AM

 
Christmas present to myself
Two days of Bobcat rental. Great fun, though there were some very close calls as far as keeping it upright.

 

  posted by John : 6:58 AM

 
Coming to the Alamo...
Sometime since the final Lord of the Rings film (was it just last year?), I've thought it would be neat to see them all together someday. Though the meals sound great, I don't know that I'm ready to sit put in theatre quite that long.
  posted by John : 5:18 PM

 
Fwd: Christmas music
Cute Xmas music flash... Thanks Debbie...

---------- Forwarded message ----------

  posted by John : 9:55 AM

 
Lately -- we saw the new King Kong movie last week. Loved it. This is one to save for viewing only on a big screen. And the other day we saw Polar Express. Perhaps due to the underwhelming reviews, I decided to pass it by when it came out. But those reviews were wrong - its a wonderful film. Saw the IMAX 3D version, which was extra fun. Perhaps there was one Tom Hanks character too many, but that's forgiveable.

Yesterday I was astonished to learn, only after having lived here in the US for almost 10 years now, that there are no Shreddies^TM here. Shreddies, it turns out are a British thing, that we inherited in Canada. Here, instead, there are Kellog's "Chex". So then the obvious question is -- well, do American's have Bits & Bites (in French-speaking Canada aka Méli-Mélo) ? Or do they call that something else too? I was in too much shock to ponder this one at the grocery store.

Epilogue: America has Chex Mix, instead of Méli-Mélo. I also found that at one time Chex had its own Doom-like video game, Chex Quest, which is available for download at Tucows. Somehow it seems you get a spoon as a weapon, but it didn't start out that way (I didn't get beyond level 1).

So, in conclusion, pretty much the same things exist in both of our countries, though with slight differences. And here there are also first-person-shooter versions available.

  posted by John : 6:33 AM

 
Earliest Known Maya Painting Found
New York Times article: "Archaeologists have uncovered a mural that is providing an unparalleled view of the early development of Mayan mythology and art."
  posted by John : 10:33 PM

 
Often I come up with ideas that seem original to me, but I know that lots of others must have thought of the same thing. Most recently, while on our trip, I thought it would be neat if there was an online travel guide that anyone could contribute to. This would provide a truly up to date and (hopefully) more accurate source of information than the travel guides available at bookstores. Of course, someone has thought of this and created Wikitravel. What you can't do is order a printed guide of the places to which you're going to travel. Hopefully using Wikitravel catches on, and then by the time it has sufficient content to rival Lonely Planet and the other guides, no doubt the capability to order printed copies will exist. And hopefully the quality of the content improves!

I just made my first Wikitravel contributions, a couple of notes in the Flores, Guatemala section. There's huge areas of Guatemala without any content -- so much to do, so little time.

  posted by John : 2:44 PM

 
Who's the Boss?
Tonight we were transported to 1975 as we enjoyed the DVD of a Bruce Springsteen concert from the Hammersmith Odeon, from his Born to Run tour. I think its the only concert film of his; came out recently for the 30th anniversary of that album. As he only had three albums out, it seemed like he played most of his songs in the show. It was only 2hr+ concert - I guess they got longer as his repetoire grew.

My brother Svend, who is visiting here with us for the month, watched it with us. He had the good fortune of seeing Springsteen perform at a college in Toronto just a month after that London concert. I would have to wait another five years to see him, at Maple Leaf Gardens in Jan 1981, while touring for the album The River. I remember Svend saw that show too, but I think he went with some of his friends. Not sure who I went along with - Paul, Knud, Linda? Our seats were up in the greens, though I remember sneaking down on my own to watch from the aisles in the lower level later in the show. Singing along, pretending I knew all the words like the rest of the crowd. Must have been the first time I went to MLG.

Later tonight, not able to sleep, I got up and came to the computer and did some web surfing on musical topics. Found this detailed article of the events of the night of John Lennon's murder (scroll down to the Dec 7th 08:51pm post by ASuss49). I actually didn't get enough of remembering John Lennon this week (I thought we'd hear Imagine five times on Dec 8th, but only heard it once from the radio in another room). Reading that article, and this one from the Poughkeepsie Journal, took care of that nicely for me. I love Yoko's "box of smile".

  posted by John : 12:23 AM

 
Frostweed 2005
Its that time of year again. We love to see the frostweed in its winter bloom. These pictures are from a few days ago, when the first "hard frost" hit. Last night's freeze brought the second and probably the last occurence of these ice flowers for the season. Today it has stayed below freezing so they've lasted all day which is a first.







  posted by John : 11:57 AM

 
The brain behind Microsoft has put some of his money into new versions of nature.

  posted by John : 12:39 AM

 
American Splendor
Having missed this film completely when it was in theatres a couple of years ago, I came across it for rent -- perhaps via a Paul Giamatti thread -- and we saw it the other night. I really enjoyed it. Like the panels of the comic book it is derived from, it had a different approach for a biography, and some unusual characters. I remember Harvey Pekar as a frequent guest on Letterman back in the 80s. Even with that bit of success, and with the success of this film, Pekar is still from all accounts curmudgeonly and worried about whether he'll make it. Which is the very attribute which has made him successful since its where we identify with him.

  posted by John : 12:16 AM