Where Are These Men?

Barcelona, it seems.

A long, long, long time ago.

Your Moment Of Zen

Ecce Homo

Freddie

My son!

My son!, originally uploaded by ifconfig.

Today being the the anniversary of his third month of life, I remember his first day!

Combat Dogs

I want a dog exactly like that.

People Of WalMart

This site is insanely funny, featuring pictures of the strange people who shop at Wallyworld. The captions really put a cherry on top.

Here’s an example:

Have I been huffing what? Huffing paint? What? Really? Where would you get that?…….Okay yes. Yes I have. It makes the cat food taste better.
Nevada

Happy Independence Day

Here are some other examples of fireworks photography, spellbinding.

February

UniBen, Circa early 90s

That’s me, middle with the silly hat.
Mama’s on the far right, my cousin Nkiru to my right, her sisters below and my brother, cut off!

Rochambeau

As I walked up Pennsylvania Avenue towards the White House on my recent trip to Washington, D.C., I spied a particularly extravagant statue in the park opposite (Lafayette Square):

I crossed over to take a closer look for, you see, I'm a lover of pointing statues.  The legend on the base read: ROCHAMBEAU.

A pinprick of light went off deep in my brain about the name, but I couldn't remember anything specific about the man.  Nearer now, I saw the arms of France on one side of the base and on the other, another set of arms so I knew this was a French man and, being he personally had a shield of arms as well, knew he was nobility.

Lieutenant General Jean-Baptiste Dontien de Vimeur was indeed a nobleman, a count (comte de Rochambeau) and a soldier who was sent to join the Americans under George Washington as they fought the English during the Revolutionary War.

Now, anyone who knows me knows my general distaste for the smelly French—which is strange seeing my long history with them; the very first language I ever spoke was French.  And yes, I did know the French helped us out during the war against the English oppressor, but still, it was kind of a shock to see Frenchy up there pointing for all he was worth.

It's very likely the French weren't really in the fight to support the Americans as to spite their centuries' old enemies, the English but who cares.  Thank you, Monsieur Le Comte.

Picture from here; wikipedia entry for the good Rochambeau.

Congress Flickr

Love it!

The Library of Congress has put up 3000 images up on Flickr with the promise of putting more from its collection of 13 million!

Here's a quick favorite:

Mrs. Topperwein is mentioned in some detail ( as part of "The Fabulous Topperweins" ) in the wikipedia entry on Exhibition Shooting: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Exhibition_shooting

Camping

Lake Cascade is actually a reservoir in central Idaho. It's a beautiful place, quiet if you come at the right time. Otherwise, it's a hopping place with motor boats and JetSkis. This time, we were lucky; we arrived to find the campground only half full.

Some interesting things happened on this trip: I saw (and tried unsuccessfully to photograph) a black bear ambling down towards the lake for a drink and I cussed out a guy in the next camp site because he absolutely refused to put the lid down on the outhouse-style toilet, stinking up the campground. Good times.

Anyway, here are some pictures of the place (clicking on each will bring up a bigger picture):

Lake Cascade, sunset on the first night.

The lake in the afternoon, looking south:

The ever-present hills and mountains frame almost every picture taken outside in Idaho. I love it! Big change from flat Florida, where the highest elevation in south Florida is a hill of trash at a local dump affectionately called Mount Trashmore that has an amazing elevation of 149-ft.

Monday Wit

From Dark Roasted Blend:

Religion

By rights and tradition, I'm a Christian. An utterly non-functioning one, with many doubts. Oh, I believe in God all right. But sometimes, on certain days, when the wind stops blowing and the sun grinds to a halt, a flitting doubt raises its head and asks, what if? like an antithetical Still Small Voice.

If I were anything else religious, I'd have been a Buddhist. I am attracted to the almost philosophical (read logical) approach to religion, two bitter enemies ordinarily. Well, maybe not bitter, but certainly strange bedfellows.

Then I realized that in many ways, Buddhism's central tenets take control out of one's hands. It's too easy to say eh, toss up the hands and settle down into some deep lotus position, eight muthafuckin' path, deep meditation and let the world spin on. Karma, neh?

I appreciate the futility of keeping too hard a grip on life which is like attempting to hold on to a spinning top, but yea gods, surely, we can do something? Like the American I have become, I am intensely uncomfortable doing something by doing nothing.

I dabbled with atheism for all of a few months. Again, it appealed to a deeply held sense and love of logic, and that flitting doubt I spoke of earlier seemed satisfied when I answered no god. However, I believe Man is incomplete without a spirituality; a need, if you will, to believe in something or someone Greater Than oneself. I don't recall who originally said it, but if God didn't exist, it would have been necessary to invent him. Of course, the staunch atheist would say that is exactly the case. More power to them.

All I know is, there are a ton of atheists who scream like petulant children seeking attention, each one bearing some puerile, half-baked grudge against God. Cries of You Don't Exist! with shaking fists litter in their wake along with mostly unfunny attempts to shock(!) those fucking Christians, as if that were so brave. I'd really like to see one of them put their money where their mouth was and utter the same in front of your friendly neighborhood Islamofascist.

Sheesh, way to go off trail. This all started because I saw that one of my favorite blogs, Dark Roasted Blend, featured the construction and destruction of a Mandala:

Incredibly intricate, monks traditionally constructed these with finely-ground colored stones after creating a design on a surface.

After back-breaking work and intense concentration, the monks simply and ritualistically destroy the work:

Signifying the transience and futility (perhaps?) of life.

Zhaozhou questioned two new arrivals at his temple.

He asked the first monk, “Have you been here before?”

The monk said, “No, I haven't.”

Zhaozhou said, “Have a cup of tea.”

Then he asked the second monk, “Have you been here before?”

The monk said, “Yes, I have.”

Zhaozhou said, “Have a cup of tea.”

The head monk asked, “Setting aside the fact that you told the one who'd never been here before to have a cup of tea, why did you tell the one who had been here before the same thing?”

Zhaozhou said, “Head monk!”

The head monk responded, “Yes?”

Zhaozhou said, “Have a cup of tea.”

Hug

Hug

Cherrypicker Control Panel

I've recently become enamored with Dr. Tufte's ideas about data visualization (he hates PowerPoint with passion). This Flickr picture is a beautiful "point of use" representation.



controlPanel
Originally uploaded by basketballcoloring.

Why?

Answer: Fucking idiots.

Transporting Blood and Oil

Oh, this is beautiful!

"Real" art

More amazing three dimensional wall paintings (h/t: James Hudnall)