Thoughts from a jumbled mind

Am I shallow for looking forward to this?

noreply@blogger.com (AmyGeek) — Wed, 23 May 2012 21:04:00 +0000

Baz Luhrman (Moulin Rouge, Romeo & Juliet, other things) has directed a new 3D!?!?!?! version of The Great Gatsby. (I HATE 3D. In case you were wondering.)

It stars Leo DiCaprio, Carey Mulligan and Tobey Maguire – all excellent actors & visually, this trailer is gorgeous.

I’m really hoping it’s showing in old fashioned 2D too…

Slinky on a treadmill

noreply@blogger.com (AmyGeek) — Wed, 23 May 2012 20:58:00 +0000

I find it kinda soothing…

The other side of the world

noreply@blogger.com (AmyGeek) — Mon, 07 May 2012 15:47:00 +0000

If you go to this site, it allows you to select your location & it will show you exactly where the other side of the world is from where you are. (Click on the picture below to embiggen).

As I suspected from the amount of time it took to get there, the other side of the world from Seattle is “near” South Africa. Actually, it’s almost exactly halfway between South Africa and Antarctica (another place on my “to do list”).

So much for the whole “dig your way to China” deal my parents told me about. Another parental lie exposed…

Dick Clark

noreply@blogger.com (AmyGeek) — Wed, 18 Apr 2012 22:47:00 +0000

Dead.

My favorite line in the NY Times obit:

He added: “It’s a piece of fluff. I’ve been a fluffmeister for a long time.”

Mike Wallace

noreply@blogger.com (AmyGeek) — Sun, 08 Apr 2012 16:31:00 +0000

Longtime 60 Minutes guy.

Dead.

Trip out on Neil DeGrasse Tyson

noreply@blogger.com (AmyGeek) — Tue, 06 Mar 2012 16:13:00 +0000

He’s so cool. He’s also an astrophysicist.

Astrophysicist Dr. Neil DeGrasse Tyson was asked by a reader of TIME magazine, "What is the most astounding fact you can share with us about the Universe?" This is his answer.

As Joni Mitchell said “we are stardust…”

What happens when Sloth get sick?

noreply@blogger.com (AmyGeek) — Fri, 02 Mar 2012 15:49:00 +0000

They get even cuter! (stick with it past the shaving and slathering part )

“Sloth milk is somewhat hard to come by.” You’ve gotta love the BBC.

What I missed by not having kids

noreply@blogger.com (AmyGeek) — Tue, 28 Feb 2012 15:50:00 +0000

Being able to mock them & video tape them simultaneously.

PostSecret

noreply@blogger.com (AmyGeek) — Tue, 28 Feb 2012 02:12:00 +0000

If you aren’t already familiar with PostSecret, you need to be. People send anonymous notes & postcards to Frank (who started the project) and Frank posts them on the website each week. There’s also PostSecret books – every time I see one in a bookstore, I sit down & end up totally obsessed for a good hour or so. It’s fascinating and touching.

This is a nice video about the project:

Weather projections

noreply@blogger.com (AmyGeek) — Fri, 17 Feb 2012 20:26:00 +0000

Um…there’s a kinda wide range here…

Look at the difference in likelihood of precipitation…

I’m diving in Cozumel Monday & Wednesday. It’s way more pleasant when it’s sunny out, but since you’re under water a lot of time, it’s ok to dive in the rain. However, my brother & sister-in-law are planning on joining me one day and doing some snorkeling, which is not fun at all in the rain. I’ve already moved them once from Monday to Wednesday. Now I’m all sorts of confused.

How does this happen?

noreply@blogger.com (AmyGeek) — Thu, 16 Feb 2012 18:08:00 +0000

I feel pressure to actually start pinning now. I wonder if this is all part of a Pinterest plot?

Cape Town Wrapup

noreply@blogger.com (AmyGeek) — Sun, 12 Feb 2012 03:22:00 +0000

It was a great trip. Cape Town is a really interesting city. I am definitely looking forward to going back (but boy oh boy is that a drag of a trip).

I went there for the excuse of attending Dave & Ilda’s wedding. Because they both grew up there, I figured it was a great opportunity to see the city with people who could show me the real Cape Town. Because of stupid logistics, Dave wasn’t there for most of the time when I was but Ilda made a surprisingly large amount of time (considering it was the week before her wedding) to drive me around.

We started off the day I arrived by going to the area where wine is grown (or however that works). As I don’t drink, we went to a winery and cheese place and had a beautiful lunch and tried all kinds of cheese. They also had pet goats, which were very entertaining. I quickly ran out of oomph and ended up crashing for 14 or so hours at my hotel, which managed to knock any jet lag out of my system.

Spent the next day going to Robben Island, where Nelson Mandela and many other political prisoners were kept. The tours there are conducted by former political prisoners, so we heard personal stories about how they used their time there to determine how South Africa should operate post-apartheid and to keep their hope and spirits alive.

I went to the Old Biscuit Mill market on Saturday morning and enjoyed checking out all the crafts, but especially the huge food area. It literally took me more than four loops around the food area before I could decide what I wanted to eat.

I got to attend Ilda’s bridal shower (aka: hen party) and meet a lot of her long time friends. Everyone was very friendly and didn’t mention how incredibly pale I was. The party was at the beach, which gave me a chance to get into the Atlantic in Africa. It was freezing. (But pretty.) While I was wandering around looking for photo ops, I was climbing on some rocks and came upon a sleeping seal about five feet from me. I screwed up the one picture I took of him/her on the rock, but after my shutter woke him up, he played in the water and let me take some pix.

Fairview Winery, Ilda's shower, Old Biscuit Mill Market, Robben Island & Table Mountain pictures

We went to the District 6 museum and the Jewish museum. I wrote about this experience earlier on my blog here because it really was significant to me.

Ilda and I spent a day driving down to Cape Point, which is the southern-most tip of Africa (not really, but it’s the tourist southern-most tip). The drive was great and we got to stop at some very picturesque towns and see the local penguins, who allowed me to climb the rocks and hang out and shoot lots of pictures of them. Watching them do their wobble-walk is hysterical.

We got to Cape Point towards the end of the day, so the tourists were all leaving and the little tram up to the top was shut down, which meant we had to hike it up. It turned out to be a pretty exhausting walk, but we saw a bunch of cool animals – I’m thinking it’s because the other people have left and because the day was cooling down. I’m sure I’ve seen ostriches in the zoo, but I never really paid much attention to them. Let me tell you – ostriches are proof that God has a sense of humor. If you look at their parts, every part of them is bizarre. And they can turn their heads around in 180 degrees – I got a picture of it.

It was a really amazing, special day and it was such a gift to get to share it with a friend.

I went to the Kirstenbosch Botanical Garden with Ilda’s sister Isabel and their aunt, Sister Teresa (a nun who lives in Mozambique and who only speaks Portuguese). It was a gorgeous day and a beautiful park. Sister Teresa managed to reach over the language gap to let me know that my face was red (combination of sunburn and walking up a big hill).

District 6 museum, Simons Town, Cape Point and Kirstenbosch Botanical Garden pix

Because I was so taken with the animals I saw at Cape Hope, Ilda’s other sister Luisa arranged for me to go on a safari at a private reserve. It was really great and I’m so happy with the pictures I got that day.

I wrapped up the trip by going to the South African Museum and seeing an exhibit of wildlife photos. They were just amazing. While walking back through the Company Garden, where the original European settlers used to plant their crops, I stopped and had an omelet at a sweet little restaurant and did some people watching. It was pretty perfect.

Later that day, Dave & Ilda took me to Bo-Kaap, a largely Muslim neighborhood that’s characterized by the bright colors they paint their homes. It was very striking.

Safari, Bo-Kaap and the Company Garden pix

I went to Dave & Ilda’s wedding and found their friends to once again be so kind and thoughtful. They made sure to reach out to me and make sure that I was comfortable. I especially liked that there was an inflatable bouncy castle at the wedding – although D & I managed to climb in there for a celebratory bounce.

Dave & Ilda’s Wedding pix

It was a great vacation, and even though the trip to and from is pretty rough, it is definitely worth it. Here are a few of my favorite pictures I shot. Click on the picture to enbiggen (or just click on the links above to see all the pix, make them Very Big or order prints).

Whitney Houston

noreply@blogger.com (AmyGeek) — Sun, 12 Feb 2012 02:13:00 +0000

Dead.

Sad, but not very surprising news. Looks like tomorrow’s Grammys just got a theme.

Gif du jour

noreply@blogger.com (AmyGeek) — Fri, 10 Feb 2012 15:10:00 +0000

Note the licker’s t-shirt, btw.

America’s Favorite Satanist

noreply@blogger.com (AmyGeek) — Wed, 08 Feb 2012 01:31:00 +0000

America's Favorite Satanist from Vicki Marquette on Vimeo.

Go Joe Go! (We’ve been friends since high school. He’s a great guy.) Lurve that he describes himself this way:

I refer to myself as the Bastard Love-child of Vincent Price and Martha Stewart.

Awkward

noreply@blogger.com (AmyGeek) — Tue, 07 Feb 2012 15:22:00 +0000

This snake is all sorts of irritated with people asking if she’s pregnant. She’s just fat.

More photos from Sara Ataie

Loudmouth Idiot Takes the Cinnamon Challenge

noreply@blogger.com (AmyGeek) — Mon, 06 Feb 2012 16:06:00 +0000

And insists on using a giant spoon to boot.

I feel oddly self satisfied after watching that.

This makes me happy

noreply@blogger.com (AmyGeek) — Fri, 03 Feb 2012 08:25:00 +0000

This clip is giving me flashbacks

noreply@blogger.com (AmyGeek) — Thu, 02 Feb 2012 15:19:00 +0000

Julianne Moore rocks it – as she always does. The lamestream media now includes HBO, I guess.

Continuing the Cape Town Love

noreply@blogger.com (AmyGeek) — Thu, 02 Feb 2012 15:12:00 +0000

New video from Die Antwoord:

Joan Rivers Stoned

noreply@blogger.com (AmyGeek) — Thu, 02 Feb 2012 14:58:00 +0000

I’m pretty sure this entire show is all set up, but it’s still kinda amusing. Also, Melissa Rivers is a big ole drag. Although she did call these old broads “Cheech & Chong” which is pretty amusing.

It would have been even better if they started making out in the hot tub…

Pot should be legal when even 70+ year old women are into it. Seriously.

Inequality

noreply@blogger.com (AmyGeek) — Sun, 29 Jan 2012 06:46:00 +0000

Okay, I have to admit, when I saw this picture, my first thought was that I agreed with whatever these women were saying. Cause they’re cute (especially the angry one on the right) and in the cold and topless.

But then I read on and it turns out that I do actually agree with what they’re saying.

If you’re not familiar with Davos, it’s the location of the annual World Economic Forum, where a bunch of incredibly wealthy and powerful smarty pants get together to talk about what they have identified as the most pressing issues in the world and how to address them.

From the Telegraph:

Police in the Swiss resort of Davos quickly arrested the three topless women demonstrators near the heavily guarded grounds of the World Economic Forum (WEF) as they repeatedly chanted, "Poor because of you!".

"In this building now there are a lot of men but only a few women, the same way as in each parliament and in each congress," protester Inna Shevchenko told reporters on her way to the venue where business and world leaders gathered for the 42nd annual WEF meeting.

She’s got a point. In the U.S., women are not only under-represented in the top 1%, but we’re also under-represented in government and the executive suites of corporations. I wonder how things might be different if there were more women driving these businesses and participating in making the decisions of government.

Of course, there are many different flavors and perspectives amongst women, ie: me and Sarah Palin. But I do think that we come to the table with some different perspectives and that’s always a good thing (although scary to those currently at the table).

Full video at the Telegraph site if you want to see them in action.

Education and Liberalism

noreply@blogger.com (AmyGeek) — Sat, 28 Jan 2012 06:39:00 +0000

Rick Santorum recently said that Obama wants to make it easier for more kids to go to university because the university system makes them into liberals. While I know that it is a fact that the majority of college professors are indeed to the left of the political spectrum (which seems to reinforce this study showing that less intelligent people tend to be more conservative), this letter from a professor to his students shows how far Americans have gotten away from the idea of learning how to think and challenge different beliefs:

(click to embiggen)

I really regret being in a place in my life where I wasn’t able to go to a good university and have the experience of being intellectually challenged – it’s probably the biggest regret of my life. From my outsider’s perspective, one of the big things that you learn in university is how to think. I’ve done my best to do so on my own and I think that I’ve been pretty successful, but I don’t think that university is about indoctrinating certain ideas, but rather to be able to look at things from different perspectives; to understand that there are many perspectives on issues and to be able to deal with complexity.

Love

noreply@blogger.com (AmyGeek) — Sat, 28 Jan 2012 06:25:00 +0000

Animals

noreply@blogger.com (AmyGeek) — Thu, 26 Jan 2012 19:08:00 +0000

Went to a private reserve today and saw a bunch of animals. Tired, but here’s a few pix I shot to keep you interested: