More busyness… a parental visit that was wonderful but which left me pretty tired. I think my folks have more energy than I do. We hit all the things I could think of off the top of my head that I’d seen before and enjoyed* and I know we missed a lot too.** They’ll just have to come back.
I’ll see if I can find some entertaining pictures of the past few days, but until then I figure a blow by blow account wouldn’t be of too much interest. Here are some entertaining links instead (I know, a cop out. I’m tired. How tired, you ask? So tired that when R:tAG brought Guitar Hero 2 for the XBox home last night, I went to bed instead of playing it. That tired.)
Social Offsets – Man, I love Mr. Sjöberg
Otters holding hands – so insanely cute my teeth hurt. Watch it ‘til the end
Top 100 April Fool’s Day Jokes - a bit late with this, sorry. I didn’t really celebrate April 1 at all. My dad did tell my Mom first thing Sunday that the US had invaded Iran… since we’d just been talking about how the West Coast is always behind on the news, she nearly had a heart attack. Fortunately he couldn’t keep a straight face.
Got Problems? Blame Californians
Beautiful Photos
Vermeer’s Camera - I should have been a big art geek. This is really really cool.
Someone else’s opinion of 300 - Just because the topic seems to generate comments. :)
Paper Plants - to add to my "things to do" list, like it wasn't long enough already
Steampunk Star Wars
Martial Arts Dance - Wu Shu with some T’ai Chi at the end. Beautiful.
* Peet’s Coffee, the Winchester Mystery House, Santana Row, the Monterey Bay Aquarium, Cannery Row, downtown San Francisco, Chinatown (found a good dim sum place), North Beach, Pier 39, Los Gatos, downtown San Jose (unhappily, I’d forgotten that the Tech Museum and the Museum of Art are closed on Mondays), Whole Foods, the Rosicrucian Museum, and La Fondue and several episodes of Mystery Science Theater 3000. Most involved lots of walking, most also included shopping.
** The 17 Mile Drive, Carmel, the Asian Art Museum, Japantown, Golden Gate Park and the wonders therein, the Zoo, Berkeley (especially Chez Panisse), the Napa and Sonoma valleys, and too many others to count.
The camera obscura thing is cool. I (had, not sure where it is-sorry I can't give the reference) a book that talked about potential use of the camera obscura in a lot of painting, and the book recieved a lot of interesting criticism. Lens and mirror use in painting probably has a very interesting history that I've only read the surface bit of, but which I'm glad to have this additional bit of info on. Thanks!
Nice Steve McCurry page - I saw a huge exhibit of his photographs at the Eastman House in Rochester, NY. We were there for a design contest, and decided to do some sightseeing. Definitely a great display.