I love a good story.
I love being lost in a good story.
I love being provoked by a good story.
I love being made pensive by a good story.
I love being moved by a good story.
I love being excited by and cheering for a good story.
I love being transported by a good story.
Sunday evening I wondered to myself “hmmm, self, I wonder why I’m feeling a bit sore.” Then I realized I’d practiced Kung Fu for nearly _six_ hours that morning/early afternoon. Starting with a run that included being pulled up and down stairs by a Kishu. I gotta say, those dogs are fast! Plus the new set Rev and I are working on is one heck of a full-body workout. Great stuff.
Rewatched a couple of old films this weekend, and enjoyed seeing them again. Did not go to see Narnia again yet, though. (and haven’t seen Ironman yet either…)
Caught up on a whack of email to friends. Studied. Continued to work on darkrooming my photos (I’m getting there, about 2/3 of the way through) (also, yes, I think I just made up a word there). Watched the weather go one way, then the next. Read the HG Blitz! rules.
I’d call this overall one leasurly weekend!
And here’s a fun link: 1200fps Mentos and Diet Coke
This is the type of research that one professor I’m designing lab space for at Stanford is currently working on: Spontaneous Generation of Chirped Time-Energy Entangled Photons. He works with lasers. I get to work with lasers by proxy!
I don’t think I’ve mentioned it here yet, but I passed my eighth Architectural Registration Exam — one left to go!
This is a nifty design for a helicopter, and amusing, as it basically is a similar idea to what Airwolf was to do…
This is a great site, it is amassing funds and making recordings of classical music (which is in the public domain) and then releasing the recordings into the public domain (as most recordings of said music are NOT in the public domain). Ditto with the sheet music for a lot of these pieces.
In my post about Prince Caspian I spoke thusly: “not so fine as an epic fantasy tale.” In thinking about it later, I realized I misspoke. One of the things about Narnia is that it is not really ‘epic.’ That’s key really, it’s a much more intimate scale, more of a yarn or a tale than an epic. And perhaps that’s where the film took a wrong turn, in going for the epic LotR-type treatment rather than a more modest tone. That might have guided them towards filling in those gaps and capturing the missing feel.
Aurora 2.3 is out! And let the two week countdown begin.
QotD: “What is that resistance? You resist it when you think about it. You resist when you prepare for it. You resist as you go to it. You resist as you start it. Then you do it, and you’re always glad you did it. What is that resistance?” — Unknown
A few months back I read Prince Caspian to get ready for the upcoming release of the film. And found myself surprised. The book/story, as a whole, just… fell flat for me. There was a fine story kernel there for sure, but the telling of that story was lacking. It was straightforward, almost droning in narrative, with much exposition and little discovery or wonder. I was left somewhat indifferent to it; it was alright, but nothing really special, and without the first instalment as a backdrop I’m not sure it would’ve been even that.
Fast forward to Friday. It’s no secret of my great adorement of the first Chronicles of Narnia film (in fact, I popped it in Thursday night just to watch a little bit and ended up watching vast chunks of it). The job done was superb both as a film and as a great adaptation of the book. When I heard that the producers were going to _add_ things to Prince Caspian in order to add some additional aspects to the storyline, I was actually pleased (I usually have reservations of changes being made to novels when filmed).
Does Prince Caspian succeed as The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe did?
“It’s hotter ‘en hell in here.”
“Yeah, but it’s a dry heat!”
“Knock it off you two.”
It has only been sevenish months… No sooner than we had completed our trek down from Half Dome last year (ok, well, the following day, it was late when we returned to the trailhead…) that we began planning our next foray to Yosemite National Park. There was only one thing to do, one trail that was perfect for early May, one that coincided with a term called “peak flow.”
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“To the world you may be one person, but to one person you may be the world.” — Heather Cortez
“Yes, [those people] were extraordinary human beings. But their capacity was not extraordinary.” — Jack Kornfield
“To know the way and not practice is to be a soup ladle in the pot and not taste the flavour of the soup” — Buddhist Saying
I love music.
I love that I love so many different genres of music.
I love being moved by music.
I love when I get chills up and down my spine from a piece of music.
I love the human voice used as an instrument.
I love a choir.
I love soundtrack scores.
I love music with complex layering.
I love instrumental pieces, vocal pieces, and much in between.
I love being surprised by music.
I love having all my music on one server for the ultimate 8 month long plus never-repeat shuffle mix
I love I am not hard on myself anymore.
I love that I have given up being frantic.
I love that upsets last only as long as until I choose to cease the upset.
I love that my cynicism is gone.
I love that frustration lasts scant minutes, if not seconds, now.
I love that things just don’t ‘bug me’ as they frequently used to.
I love that I am now comfortable in my own skin.
