SPRING FREAKING BREAK!

uneasy

This is how I've felt all day:

moi

MSLF took this picture of your humble servant during a game of bocce ball. The smug look is probably because of the comeback from 2-7 to 10-9 to win the game.

Actually, the smug look is because I'm me.

Kiiiiiii - 4 Little Joeys

This song seems so much more fun than when I sing it.

injustice

Europe gets Lordi. We get Taylor Hicks.



Lordi's "Hard Rock Hallelujah"

I'm not even going to bother posting one of Hicks'. Also, I had to look up the name of a winner. All I knew was Clay Aiken.

weekend of sick

A special little place we've made in our backyard where we can relax. My favorite use: a book, a beer, a pipe, a poodle. The planter and heather are new additions as of today.

MSLF using our amazing new mower that relies on an oft-forgot powersource: human legs and arms. In this case MSLF's arms and legs...

We spent much of the day outside today (me sneezing and coughing and doped up) doing stuff. Actually, MSLF was outside while I cleaned out the garage. What do you do with a mower you want to get rid of? Recycle? Solid waste? No wonder our world is in a shit state of affairs.

Please note cleavage.

One of the new flowers we bought today. It looks alien to me, like something out of What Dreams May Come or Willy Wonka. Or Jumanji... A larger image is available on Flickr.

transience

For those of you not familiar with Andy Goldsworthy, I give you a clip from the documentary about his work. I don't want to say that he's my favorite artist primarily because I don't have one. His work, though, comes closest.

By the way, the lecture yesterday by Robert and Shana ParkeHarrison was semi-interesting, mostly because it annoyed MSLF more than it annoyed me! More on that later.

If you're not up for watching all of this, fast forward to about 2:50 and watch the rest.

strange dreams

First thing: look at the post time of this blog. That's a.m.

So in my dreams last night, the following happened through that strange interconnectivity of dreams and reality in which randomness seems reasonable.

1. I was in an antique store/duty-free shop in Bolivia.
2. I walked through a field of cell phones. The ground was covered entirely by cell phones that had been lost, and I went along picking them like flowers.
   
3. Kurt Russell and I, while hanging out, talked about his role in Ran. He said it wasn't one of his finest. I expressed no surprise whatsoever that he would have been in a Japanese adaptation of King Lear.
   
4. Kurt Russell is a big fan of the TV show The Wire and borrowed my (nonexistent) VHS copy of the show.
   

Also, my grandmother died in my dream and my grandfather died again and we buried him again.

pictures, pictures, and more pictures!

Gor' bless Nikon. What a lovely camera the D40 is. In the words of the exasperated mother of a student who had a herniated testicle that wouldn't heal and was complaining to his coach, "The thing would get better if he'd just stop touching it!" Well, I'm not done touching it (antecedent= D40) and it's getting better!

Okay, that was a disgusting analogy for which I quasi-apologize.

These artists are going to be in town this Friday, and MSLF and I are going to check it out then eat sushi in celebration for passing her master's exam! Woo-hoo!

Robert and Shana ParkeHarrison

Titicaca Panorama

Titicaca Panorama
Originally uploaded by dwain.

Took this 2 years ago and just now got it together in Photoshop. I had no idea how to merge!

The color is crap, but there you have it.

This is taken from the top of the Isla del Sol (Island of the Sun) where the sun and moon were born. We actually saw the cleft in the rock formation from which the lake gets its name ("stone puma") and in which the celestials appeared. We did a 3-4 hour trek around most of the island, and on top of the island, a 2 hour boat ride from shore, in an adobe hut store, we bought Pringles from a little girl who probably couldn't begin to imagine the West.

On a separate note, my quasi-review of Mieville's book is on Random House's site. Tee-hee-hee!

trailer for Nomad

Original? No. That bother me? No.

Nomad: The Warrior

This must be watched! YOU MUST WATCH THIS TRAILER! It's the most exciting trailer I've seen in quite some time! It's right up there with Bubba Ho-Tep.

Black Sheep

wow

Korea. Seriously?

church in cusco

church in cusco
Originally uploaded by dwain.

updates for the uncaring

Think I've finally decided on a camera: Nikon D40. Considering how amateurish I am about photography and in light of the recent ass-reaming by the federal and state governments (which I paid for, ironically and despite my sexual orientation), shelling out $600 is more feasible than the $1500 I want to for the D200. Will I be satisfied? Unlike with the G-men, yes.

Arcade Fire's recent album is awesome. Must love "No Cars Go" and "Keep the Car Running." Theme sensed...

I had a female student write about a beautiful place in Russia, and somehow she worked in the phrase "dresses for glans" into a description of the Kremlin. Apparently aristocratic penises in Russia are made to wear dresses. Who knew? Another student wrote about the "Arabic golf" (supposed to be gulf), so to explain the error I took my best stance, yelled "Allahu akhbar!" and drove the imaginary ball 300 yards. He was very amused.

Yesterday I received a wonderful surprise: a personalized, signed copy of Un Lun Dun by China Mieville. I had posted a review of it on Random House's site (the 4th page) in hopes of getting it, but I forgot about it entirely. Was I in geek heaven? Yes. Yes, I was.

Am thoroughly enjoying Explosions in the Sky, the only good thing to come out of Texas since... I'll revisit that one after some arduous thought.

My grandmother fell and broke her hip last week. My parents are making a mad dash out there today to see her, because she's not expected to last awfully long. Thrown that entire side of the family into chaos. I'm feeling sort've numb about it, really. Don't think me insensitive (to myself), but it's almost like "Why not? Two in a month can't be much worse than one, can it?" I don't know how to deal with this. I'm reading a John Updike novel in which a Muslim character ruminates on how fragile the belief in an afterlife and purpose in life are; if a bug's death is meaningless, mine can't mean that much more.

Based on this month's Nat'l Geographic, I fully support the torture and beheading of people who poach endangered species for such things as ivory, tiger testicles, rhino horn, poodle penis, etc. Tortured like Daniel "Touch me I'm sexy" Craig in Casino Royale.

I go now.

bolivia

Hola Amiguitas...!!!!
Originally uploaded by Javier !!!.

I really like this photo.

Taxes always surprise and depress me. If I got more service out of my money, I might not be as pissed as I am.

Oh, and for the record, fuck Kentucky.

the editors - blood

It's so nice to hear a group fronted by a guy with a voice that can't be easily mistaken for a woman's.

pile it on!

Another quote from another letter (PDF), this one from the Interfaith Stewardship Alliance.

Whether or not global warming is largely natural, (1) human efforts to stop it are largely futile; (2) whatever efforts we undertake to stem our small contributions to it would needlessly divert resources from much more beneficial uses; and (3) adaptation strategies for whatever slight warming does occur are much more sensible than costly but futile prevention strategies. Therefore, we believe it is far wiser to promote economic growth, partly through keeping energy inexpensive, than to fight against potential global warming and thus slow economic growth. And there is a side benefit, too: wealthier societies are better able and more willing to spend to protect and improve the natural environment than poorer societies. Our policy, therefore, is better not only for humanity but also for the rest of the planet.

Apparently these shepherds of men are not very keen observers of their flock of humans and their propensity to divert wealth toward themselves instead of the betterment of others, and they are definitely forgetting the teachings in their holy book regarding wealth and the contempt with which rich people are viewed by Jesus. Is it just me, or is the above paragraph absolutely insane?

ignorance

This is a letter (PDF) that was sent by a large number of leaders of evangelical organizations to yet another organization (NAE) in regards to the latter's spokesperson in DC and his outspoken views about global warming. The contents of this letter are alarming, especially since these organizations hold considerable sway with the evangelical culture. Actually, alarming doesn't begin to express my incredulity.

"More importantly, we have observed that Cizik and others are using the global warming controversy to shift the emphasis away from the great moral issues of our time, notably the sanctity of human life, the integrity of marriage and the teaching of sexual abstinence and morality to our children. In their place has come a preoccupation with climate concerns that extend beyond the NAE’s mandate and its own statement of purpose."

It's time someone take Dobson out behind the woodshed and dare to discipline him. Wendell Berry has published a wonderful essay, "Christianity and the Survival of Creation," and a particularly relevant quote is that

...our destruction of nature is not just bad stewardship, or stupid economics, or a betrayal of family responsibility; it is the most horrid blasphemy. It is flinging God's gifts into his face, as of no worth beyond that assigned to them by our destruction of them. To Dante, "despising Nature and her gifts" was a violence against God.(n3)

The sanctity of marriage is, in my heretical mind, somewhat less important than Creation and existence, unless God somehow wrote a pre-Creation-nuptial agreement (I'm proud of that phrase!) about who could and could not.

black vs. blackface

I don't mean the title of the post to be offensive, so no hypersensitivity allowed.

CNN has a fascinating article about rap music and the backlash that is developing against everything it has come to represent. Good words:

"The American public had an opportunity to pick what they wanted from David Banner," he says. "I wish America would just be honest. America is sick. ... America loves violence and sex."

human v. nature

The battle continues:

Moose downs helicopter

Nature: 4 Humans: 0

it begins

The Iditarod begins today. Follow the insanity here.

mururata

IMG_3217a
Originally uploaded by Captain PaleFace.

A lovely mountain near La Paz. Flat on top, apparently. Odd juxtaposition, no?

coroico

fun
Originally uploaded by Captain PaleFace.

My family used to visit this town. Beautiful.