Happy Halloween!
It really doesn't feel like Halloween without chilly weather and the smell of leaf mold. On the other hand, this is without question the scariest pumpkin I have ever carved.
Sunday, October 29, 2006
Tuesday, October 24, 2006
Wednesday, October 18, 2006
After Hours Productivity
Rich's Wedding and the Cincinnati Nature Center
I went to Cincinnati this past weekend for my cousin Rich's wedding. It was really wonderful. :)
I've got longer videos of the dance that I'm uploading to google video at the moment. I'll post them here when they finish uploading.
Update: here they are. 1 2 3 4
On Sunday after a brunch at my Aunt's, my mom and I along with my other aunt and uncle went to the Cincinnati Nature Center. Here are some pictures from that. I missed the height of the leaves changing by about a week, but I saw enough of it to tide me over.
The video in that album is of woolly aphids devouring a limb of a beech tree. The only thing that eats them is a particular type of carnivorous caterpillar.
There are a lot of wonderful things at the nature center. In the spring the frog ponds are all suitably full of frogs and lily pads for them to sit on. The larger lakes are great places to watch fish and turtles come up to the surface to gulp down any offered food, or to watch turtles sunning themselves on a log. In the summer the prairies are full of birds and the sounds of locusts. In the winter the clearings in front of the bird blinds fill up with birds, and they are my favorite part. When I'm in a bird blind I feel like I'm simultaneously kneeling at an ancient forest shrine and watching the lost boys have a food fight. Together, the two effects ensure that I always leave refreshed. I think I like Charley Harper's art for a similar reason. A lot of artists capture the grandeur and beauty of nature, but I've seen few that simultaneously capture it's silliness.
I've got longer videos of the dance that I'm uploading to google video at the moment. I'll post them here when they finish uploading.
Update: here they are. 1 2 3 4
On Sunday after a brunch at my Aunt's, my mom and I along with my other aunt and uncle went to the Cincinnati Nature Center. Here are some pictures from that. I missed the height of the leaves changing by about a week, but I saw enough of it to tide me over.
The video in that album is of woolly aphids devouring a limb of a beech tree. The only thing that eats them is a particular type of carnivorous caterpillar.
There are a lot of wonderful things at the nature center. In the spring the frog ponds are all suitably full of frogs and lily pads for them to sit on. The larger lakes are great places to watch fish and turtles come up to the surface to gulp down any offered food, or to watch turtles sunning themselves on a log. In the summer the prairies are full of birds and the sounds of locusts. In the winter the clearings in front of the bird blinds fill up with birds, and they are my favorite part. When I'm in a bird blind I feel like I'm simultaneously kneeling at an ancient forest shrine and watching the lost boys have a food fight. Together, the two effects ensure that I always leave refreshed. I think I like Charley Harper's art for a similar reason. A lot of artists capture the grandeur and beauty of nature, but I've seen few that simultaneously capture it's silliness.
Friday, October 06, 2006
Mark Warner is going to be president.
I don't think there's a politician alive with more ideas or credibility. Spread the word.
Thursday, October 05, 2006
Garrison Keillor on Habeas Corpus
Garrison Keillor had some powerful words to say about the recent Senate action. There should be an editorial like this in every newspaper in the country.
None of the men and women who voted for this bill has any right to speak in public about the rule of law anymore, or to take a high moral view of the Third Reich, or to wax poetic about the American Idea. Mark their names. Any institution of higher learning that grants honorary degrees to these people forfeits its honor. Alexander, Allard, Allen, Bennett, Bond, Brownback, Bunning, Burns, Burr, Carper, Chambliss, Coburn, Cochran, Coleman, Collins, Cornyn, Craig, Crapo, DeMint, DeWine, Dole, Domenici, Ensign, Enzi, Frist, Graham, Grassley, Gregg, Hagel, Hatch, Hutchison, Inhofe, Isakson, Johnson, Kyl, Landrieu, Lautenberg, Lieberman, Lott, Lugar, Martinez, McCain, McConnell, Menendez, Murkowski, Nelson of Florida, Nelson of Nebraska, Pryor, Roberts, Rockefeller, Salazar, Santorum, Sessions, Shelby, Smith, Specter, Stabenow, Stevens, Sununu, Talent, Thomas, Thune, Vitter, Voinovich, Warner.
Thursday, September 28, 2006
"It's a free country"
Most of you are probably aware of the recent suspension of Habeas Corpus . Senator Chris Dodd said it at least as well as I could:
This longstanding tradition of our country about to be abandoned here is one of the great, great mistakes that I think history will record.Reading about this for me is like gaping at a car wreck that you just can't turn away from. Here's how the vote went in the House and the Senate. In the past six years I've gotten used to the feeling of being embarrassed by my government, but I can no longer console myself that the executive is merely incompetent. I wonder how long it will take the phrase, "It's a free country," to fall out of circulation. It feels inadequate to mention any single notable and applicable quotation; There are so many, from Benjamin Franklin, George Orwell, Winston Churchill. What's amazing to me is that with the entire range of quotable and historic philosophers arrayed against this type of legislation, too few senators had the courage to stand against it to mount even a filibuster. I joined the ACLU today. Freedom apparantly can't protect itself.
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